Larry Johnson is a douche now, but I will defend him here because I hate Carson Palmer and all pretty boys.

I won’t count the Auburn game wherein he and everyone else played like garbage because that was after the Heisman vote.

Against Iowa (42-35 loss): Well, the obvious caveat is that a poor Penn State defense mixed with OMG BRAD BANKS which mixed with a generally mediocre, uninspired offense to put the Lions in a big hole at the half. Johnson had 68 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, which is not great, but it’s not pathetic either. He also caught six passes for 93 yards and a touchdown, and that touchdown was sweet. Not a bad day, all things considered.

Against Michigan (27-24 loss): 17 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown, 5 receptions for 46 yards. He was slightly injured during the Wisconsin game the week before (He had a very, very good day up until the injury) and PSU wasn’t trying to emphasize him too much in the offense. He might not have played on a better team, but PSU’s second string tailback was, I guess, Michael Robinson. The third string was some hard-working white guy named Gasparato.

Against Ohio State (13-7 loss): 16 carries for 66 yards and a touchdown, 6 receptions for 32 yards. As the score indicates, this was a defensive tussle, and Penn State came away looking like the better team – which isn’t surprising considering the way Ohio State played all of that year. Ohio State’s winning score in the 3rd came off of a Zack Mills interception, which was returned for six by Chris Gamble. Without this score, PSU’s defensive linemen, who were simply and utterly dominating, quite probably could have won 7-6. Johnson did his best this day, but PSU’s offensive line wasn’t going to make any openings against Ohio State’s guys, who were pretty much dominant too.

In summary: I can’t fault him for his performance against Iowa because it was a good performance, he almost certainly would have done much better against Michigan if he hadn’t been suffering from a leg injury, and the 2002 Penn State-Ohio State game remains the toughest defensive slug-fest I’ve ever seen the Lions play. Better than Troy Davis? Yeah, I think so.

Davis accumulated all that yardage while playing on some absolutely terrible teams. His offensive line was not only a bunch of girls, they were terrible. Teams knew exactly what Iowa State was going to do and Davis still went ape shit on them.

I don’t remember it all that vividly but Wiki would lead me to believe that Davis won three regions in the Heisman voting and got especially hosed by the Southern region. I suppose if you subscribe to the theory that the QB/RB of the best team in the country should always win the Heisman instead of the player with the most impressive on-field performance, then it would make sense that Danny Wuerfful would win the Heisman.