Jahvid Best and His Hunt for the Heisman Trophy
Cal Football Star Improves Chances With 5 TDs vs. Minnesota
The junior running back scored all five of his team's touchdown as Cal defeated Minnesota 35-21 at Minneapolis.
The 5-foot-10, 195-pound junior ran the ball a season-high 26 times, gaining 131 yards and scoring on rushes of 33 and 27 yards in addition to a trio of 2-yard touchdowns. The five TDS marked a career high and fell just one short of the school single-game record set by Dick Dunn in 1922.
After three games, Best has run 53 times for 412 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 137.1 yards per game and 7.8 yards per carry. He's also caught seven passes for 59 yards and one TD.
Those statistics might be even more daunting if his team had not blown out Maryland and Eastern Washington in its first two contests. Best had just 27 carries combined in those games.
Best nearly matched that in the Minnesota game alone, as the Bears (3-0) bounced back after blowing a 21-7 lead.
Yet as good as Best has been, he might need to put up bigger rushing totals to beat out players like Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and Texas QB Colt McCoy for the Heisman Trophy.
Heisman Competition Is Formidable
Tebow's team is No. 1 in the nation, and he's just as good now as he was when he won the Heisman in 2007, if not better. McCoy always puts up sparkling numbers for high-scoring Texas, and his team's No. 2 in the nation.
The competition would have been even more daunting if last year's winner, Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, had not been injured in the Sooners' season opener.
Still, Best is on a pace to score to score 36 touchdowns, which would be an NCAA record. If he ends up with more than half that number, he'd be making quite a case for himself.
USC's Reggie Bush, the last running back to win the Heisman, scored 19 TDs and rushed for 1,740 yards to win the Heisman in 2005. Best needs similar production.
And while tougher challenges are coming up, it's safe to say that Best is in the Heisman hunt. If nothing else, he's shown that he has the necessarry talent.
QB Riley Could Be Key to Best's Quest – and Cal’s
But Best won't be a contender for long if he is slowed down like he was in the second half by Minnesota. After running for 114 yards in the first half, he was limited to 17 yards over the final two quarters.
Minnesota (2-1) dominated the possession clock and basically took Best out of the game in the third quarter. He emerged in the fourth quarter for the decisive touchdown runs, but the Golden Gophers prevented him from breaking way like he did early on.
Luckily for Cal, quarterback Kevin Riley managed to make some big throws, and the Golden Bears regained control to avert what would have been a shattering upset.
So far, Riley's been extremely efficient this season, completing 46 of 71 passes for 698 yards and five touchdowns without being intercepted. Riley must keep that up if Best is going to have a shot at college football's most coveted award.
Cal can't have opponents swarming all over Best, and only Riley and the passing attack can prevent that. More importantly, the Golden Bears won't go very far as a team if their offense is not balanced. Even Best isn't good enough to carry it all by himself.
Cal Faces Oregon, USC, UCLA in Next 3 Games
Team success is a major factor in Heisman voting, and after USC's stunning upset loss at Washington, No. 6 Cal is now the most highly rated team in the Pac-10 -- at least for a week.
On Sept. 26, the Golden Bears open their Pac-10 schedule with a rugged road matchup at Oregon. After that, they're home vs. No. 12 USC, then they head south to meet UCLA.
If the Bears survive that, they'd be able to call themselves legitimate Bowl Championship Series national title contenders. And Best – barring injury or an uncharacteristic decline – would have as good a shot as anyone in the Heisman Trophy race.
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