Here’s an interesting take on Jake Locker’s failed Heisman candidacy from John McGrath on TheOlympian.com. He writes that expectations were simply too high for Locker and that stumbling early should make life easier for the quarterback and his University of Washington football team.
I can’t be hypocritical about this: Locker’s candidacy was fun.
It was fun for those of us who watch games from the press box, fun for fans, fun for Locker’s teammates and coaches.
Two years after Washington finished 0-12, the notion of the worst overall team in the land producing the best overall player in the land gave the dreary Seattle sports landscape a veneer of big-time relevance.
But I suspect a Heisman Trophy subplot to the 2010 season was too much, too soon for the Huskies. I suspect their long-range ambitions for Locker obscured the more urgent task at hand.