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One look at the mass collection of homemade signs students brought to Ball State University's football game Friday evening and it was easy to tell quarterback Nate Davis was the fan favorite.
One sign exclaimed the junior's propensity to urinate excellence, a play on the famous Will Ferrell movie "Talladega Nights." Others used Davis for ESPN acronyms. But the most-common sign read four simple words: "Nate Davis for Heisman."
The coaches and players got a chuckle from the Heisman signs. Offensive coordinator Stan Parrish called it "bologna," and Davis didn't give himself much of a chance to get into Heisman conversation. Athletics director Tom Collins said no one in the athletics department has "talked about it actively."
The reality is, Collins and his staff are running behind schedule on marketing the best football player the Cardinals have ever had for the most prestigious award in college sports. Davis will have the statistics, and Ball State is going to have the record to make him a legitimate contender this year.
I know the Heisman Trophy is an award dominated by players in BCS conferences. The last time the award was given to a player who didn't play in one of the country's top six conferences was in 1990. There have been three Heisman Trophy winners from a mid-major program since 1951.
That doesn't mean the best mid-major players are completely overlooked.
It's almost certain a player outside the BCS will crack the top 10 this season. It has happened every year in the past 18 except 1995.
Collins has experienced the Heisman hype before. When he was working at Arizona State in 1996, former Sun Devils' quarterback Jake Plummer finished third in the voting. Collins said the athletics department promoted Plummer to national analysts in the final weeks of the season and mailed each voter a letter of recommendation in November.
Plummer wasn't expected to have the season he had, and it wasn't until the Sun Devils were ranked in the nation's top 10 that the Heisman talk became a serious. But it's easier to make up time promoting a quarterback in the PAC 10 than it is in the MAC. That's why Central Michigan's athletics department paid for a 60-foot-by-30-foot billboard of their star quarterback, Dan LeFevour, before the season.
Collins is usually coy when he talks about details regarding his department, so it's impossible to tell whether he has been working behind the scenes to market Davis or if he's completely dropped the ball. But if the latter is true, there's really no excuse.
National analysts had Davis on their radar in the preseason. ESPN's Lou Holtz said Davis was the one non-BCS player to watch this year. He's already lived up to that hype.
The athletics department needs to get to work in a hurry for two reasons.
First, Ball State owes it to Davis, who remained loyal to the university even when he could've transferred to a more "big-time" program. Davis chose Ball State instead of a BCS school because he wanted to become the "Next Great MAC Quarterback." Davis said Heisman notoriety is important to him.
More important is the future of the Cardinals' football program. Good luck telling a potential recruit he can make a name for himself on the national level at Ball State when the athletics director won't seriously market the best player this program's ever had. That's a tough sell.
The good news is, after two games, it's not too late to promote Davis for the Heisman Trophy. But if Collins doesn't get to work soon, expect students to be holding signs with the four simple words: "BSU get a clue."
Write to Ryan at rtwood@bsu.edu
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