Never live with someone that won the Heisman.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My biggest frustration with the Heisman is it's become the MVP of the national champion, or a team going to the National Championship game. That's what it's turned into. If you're not undefeated, you're out of the running.
On the field, I went from an anonymous redshirt to a short-yardage specialist to a Heisman Trophy candidate. Off the field, I showed up as a wild kid and grew up.
I still see myself as young, the same guy I was before I ever won the Heisman. Hopefully my friends still feel I'm the same way. I just want people to know I'm still the same person I've always been.
The Heisman attention has definitely been a little bit of a surprise. It's been out of my hands. It's something I'm not focused on. I'm focused on the season and trying to win as many games as possible.
The next MVP of the Super Bowl is just as likely to have been a full-time grocery store bagger last year as a Heisman Trophy winner.
It's something you dream about as a kid. Like when you play all those NCAA video games as a kid and you create your own player and win the Heisman with a bunch of crazy numbers. It's the biggest, most prestigious award in college football, so it'd definitely be a dream come true.
I never brought it up when I coached, but I have close ties at Ohio State. Unfortunately, I even have a graduate degree from there.
If you chart SEC champions over a 20-year period, the one consistent thing to me is you're not going to win if you don't have a quarterback. It's too critical of a position. He decides something every play.
Individual goals never meant that much to me. The Heisman is no exception.
You can look at everything from pre-Heisman to post-Heisman, and I think that's why it ranks up at the top, because before then, I didn't even think I was good enough to be a professional ballplayer.