Darren McFadden News
Arkansas Makes Off-The Field Push For McFadden
Arkansas running back Darren McFadden maintains a hard and fast rule regarding the Heisman Trophy.
Every time the junior is asked about college football’s most coveted award, he refuses to launch into a campaign. Instead, his responses are typically shaped along these lines: “I’ll just let the numbers do the talking.”
But McFadden’s on-the-field push for the prize ended with Arkansas’ 50-48, triple-overtime win at then-No. 1 LSU in Baton Rouge, La., last Friday. So, for much of the past week, Arkansas has turned to other methods in hopes of keeping McFadden in the limelight before Heisman voters submit their ballots.
Arkansas may be searching for a new football coach after Houston Nutt’s departure, but the program also has been, well, campaigning for McFadden by targeting Heisman voters and flooding the national media.
Arkansas believes the nationwide push is essential.
Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who didn’t play this weekend, is atop most Heisman straw polls. Other Heisman hopefuls like Missouri’s Chase Daniel, West Virginia’s
Pat White and Hawaii’s
Colt Brennan had one more chance to impress on the field Saturday, a week before the trophy is awarded in New York on Dec. 8.
“It’s important that the people that want to talk to (McFadden) have a chance to talk to him,” said Josh Maxson, Arkansas’ assistant sports information director. “It’s not going to make up for being able to go out and play in a championship game. I think that would be great. But he left it on a note, that performance against LSU, you can ride that for a little while I would think. People still want to talk to you about that.”
McFadden rushed for 206 yards and three touchdowns against the Tigers. He also threw for another score. The production helped the Razorbacks beat a top-ranked team for the first time since 1981.
McFadden finish the regular season as the nation’s fourth-leading rusher (143.8 yards a game). He ran for 1,725 yards and 15 touchdowns, threw four touchdown passes and caught another. He also tied the SEC’s single-game rushing record against South Carolina (321 yards) and set Arkansas’ single-season rushing mark for the second straight season.
“I feel like I’m well deserving of the Heisman,” McFadden said last Thursday. “But I can’t say that I’ve won it.”
Arkansas is hoping it can help. Maxson said the LSU game convinced the Razorbacks that McFadden could win. So the Razorbacks, who have plugged McFadden all season, increased the politicking last week.
“We talked and said, ‘We think you’re in this,’” Maxson said. “‘We think you have a chance here. We want to do as much as we can to promote you, to help get you out there. You’re not playing this week and other people are, so let’s get you out there talking to people.’ ... He was all for it.”
The push actually started last Saturday, when McFadden was interviewed during ESPN’s College GameDay show the day after the LSU win.
McFadden took part in several interviews on nationwide talk shows with Dan Patrick, Tim Brando and Jim Rome. He appeared on a Sirius Satellite Radio show. He did a regional interview with a Birmingham station.
In addition, McFadden spent 10 minutes with the Arkansas media Thursday afternoon. McFadden was asked about a variety of topics, but the recurring theme was his Heisman Trophy hopes.
“I go out there and return kicks, catch passes, throw them, run the ball,” he said Thursday. “It’s just a lot of different things I do. I don’t feel like no other player in the country can do the things I do as good as I do.”
Arkansas has tried to emphasize that point to Heisman voters in other ways. The sports information department distributed a mass e-mail this week that counted down the seven reasons why McFadden should win the award.
The reasons — which include “he plays his best against the best” and “is a threat to score from anywhere on the field” — are backed up by statistics. The top reason, which is at the bottom of the e-mail, declares, “simply put, Darren McFadden is the most outstanding player in college football.”
ESPN college football reporter Joe Schad, who also is a Heisman voter, said no one has done a better job of marketing its player than Arkansas this season. However, Schad said it probably won’t help McFadden win. He had McFadden third behind Daniel and Tebow on his list Saturday morning.
“While I think he is clearly the best player in college football, Tim Tebow has been the most exciting and Chase Daniel has been the most outstanding,” Schad said. “On my Heisman ballot, I think it says most outstanding. It’s almost impossible to overcome a player who led Missouri to the No. 1 spot.”
Others disagree. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit once again plugged McFadden as his choice for the award during College GameDay on Saturday.
Andre Ware, who won the Heisman in 1989, said during ESPN’s broadcast on the Conference-USA title game that McFadden had earned his vote as well.
McFadden, who is a finalist for the Doak Walker Award (nation’s best running back) and Maxwell Award (nation’s top player) will find out if he is a Heisman Trophy finalists when invitations are distributed early this week. But Arkansas won’t really know if last week’s off-the-field efforts have helped until Saturday night, when the Heisman is awarded in New York.
“I know the Heisman is a great accomplishment,” McFadden said. “That’s like everybody’s dream. So for me, it’s just a dream come true if I could win it.
“It will be a disappointment to me (if I don’t), but at the same time, I know I’m still a good ballplayer. I don’t feel like I have to just win the Heisman to set my mark in college football because I feel like I’ve done that already.”
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