Clemson’s Harper a dark-horse Heisman candidate

By Chris Preston  |   Wednesday, June 25, 2008  |  Comments( 4 )

 Clemson Tigers
The 2008 college football season will be blessed with one of the finest crop of proven quarterbacks in recent memory. Florida's Tim Tebow, last year's Heisman Trophy winner, returns, as do West Virginia’s Pat White and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, last year’s national passer rating champ. So it’s easy to see how Clemson’s Cullen Harper might ...
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CommentsComments: 4
 No.1
RazzMaTazz		 01:13 PM
06/26/2008
Harper also has a lot of other receivers who can help make him look good, like scary-fast WR Jacoby Ford, Taylor, Dye, Spiller (as a receiver), TE's Palmer, Linthicum, et al. The BIG question is whether or not the O-line can run-block well enough to keep defenses honest, and pass-protect well enough to enable Harper to pick apart the secondary (which he does well). The other question is whether OC Spence will help Harper by mixing it up and by going pass-heavy against strong run-defenses (and exposing mismatches), or whether Spence will continue to go run-heavy and predictably run on 1st down (throw on 3rd down) regardless of the opponent's defense.

I'm not sure, but it seems like a high percentage of Clemson's passes are short or screens, which helps Harper's efficiency rating, but doesn't impress the Heisman voters as much as say, Graham Harrell firing 30-yard laser-guided missiles to Michael Crabtree. And Harper isn't a thrilling runner like Pat White or Tim Tebow. So Harper doesn't appear on the highlight reels. That will likely hurt him in the voting.

Harper's accuracy was great last year, except for the Auburn game (injured shoulder) and the GT game (high balls). And he seems poised, tough, and willing to take a hit for the team. His weakness is that he doesn't have great pocket-presence and so he seems to get sacked (especially blind-sided) more than he should. He also has a tendency to hold the ball a bit too long, and expose the receivers in the flats to freight-train cornerback tackles.

But Spence is a really good QB coach, and from what I've read, Harper is a really hard worker, so Harper should perform better this season. However, since he doesn't have name recognition going into the season, I think it will be an uphill battle for him to win national awards.
 No.2
ru4God2		 12:32 PM
06/27/2008
Hey Razz..... you said, "...the Auburn game (injured shoulder) and the GT game (high balls)."

Are those both medical explanations? :)
 No.3
RazzMaTazz		 12:57 PM
06/27/2008
No, I meant he drank too many highballs before the game. :-)
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