Johnny Manziel Wins Heisman Trophy

Johnny Manziel, or better known as "Johnny Football," became the first freshman to ever take home the Heisman Trophy. The Heisman is the most coveted individual accolade in college football, and the Texas A&M University quarterback beat out University of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and Kansas State University quarterback Colin Klein, the other two finalists.

Manziel (20), a red-shirt freshman, was also the second youngest to ever win the award trailing only Mark Ingram, who took home the award in 2009 as a running back for the University of Alabama as a nineteen-year-old sophomore. Manziel also joins John David Crow as the only Aggie to ever win this prestigious award, Crow did it in 1957 as a running back.

Manziel's statistics this season were off the charts, he threw for 3,419 yards and 24 touchdowns, while completing almost 70% of his throws and only 8 interceptions. However, "Johnny Football's" versatility as a dual-threat quarterback might have been his best quality. Manziel ran for 1,181 yards and 19 more touchdowns on 184 carries.

The stats were all there, yet playing in the SEC with the likes of Alabama, Florida, LSU, among others, Manziel along with the rest of the Texas A&M program needed a statement win. This was the Aggies inaugural season in the "football conference" and many believed that they had no business being there after the conference realignment. Well, Mr. Football and Co. burst onto the scene on November 10th, when they went into Tuscaloosa and beat the number one ranked University of Alabama on their home field.

Manziel played a near perfect game on national television with all eyes on him. He torched the tough Crimson Tide defense for 253 yards on 24 for 31 throws and two touchdowns, while also running for nearly 100 yards. He connected with wideout Ryan Swope over and over late in the game, dropping absolute dimes all over the field,
leaving the Alabama defense in awe.

Although Texas A&M did have the best player in the country, they did lose two games. One to a tough University of Florida team 20-17, and the other to another tough LSU team 24-19. By the way those teams finished #3 and #8 in the country respectively, and the Aggies finished at #9 with a 10-2 record. Even with the losses, everyone has to agree that the Aggies and Manziel belong in the SEC.

On top of that, Manziel can't enter the NFL Draft for at least another year, as the NFL requires that a player needs to be out of high school at least three years before entering the draft. So "Johnny Football" will be haunting SEC defenses for at least one more year, and at the most three more. But for now, Texas A&M has a date with Oklahoma University on January 4th in the Cotton Bowl, but this time their quarterback is a Heisman winner.

One Last Thing: Only three finalists were invited to New York for the ceremony as opposed to four, which is the norm. In fact, there was a clear divide amongst the players this year in this year's Heisman voting. It was basically a two man race in the final weeks of the season between Manziel and Te'o. Te'o dominated games on the defensive side of the football for the Fighting Irish tallying 103 tackles and 7 interceptions, an odd feat for a linebacker. Te'o also overcame a lot of adversity this season as he lost his grandmother and girlfriend on the same day, and still played with a heavy heart all season to lead his team to an undefeated 12-0 record.