Duke Week, Volume 3 (Hokie Heisman? edition) ...

So I sent an e-mail today to a couple of old friends from this biz who now work for The Worldwide Leader (ESPN). I’m hearing all this Heisman talk, seeing so many national writers searching for new candidates now that Tebow, McCoy and Bradford have either struggled or been injured.

I’ve seen all kinds of names tossed around ... even ... um ... N.C. State QB Russell Wilson. Sorry, not buying that one. Not at all. Great player, great no-pick streak he’s got going. NOT a Heisman candidate.

What I haven’t seen is any real, legit Heisman buzz over Virginia Tech tailback Ryan Williams. Why not?

Because he’s a redshirt freshman? So was Mike Vick. Because he has only played four games? Same as every other player this season.

It’s a little crazy, I admit, to be talking about the sport’s biggest award before a kid has played even half a season of college football. BUT ... here’s the gist of what I wrote to the guys at ESPN, and why I think Williams is as serious a Heisman candidate right now as anyone:

* He has 612 yards of total offense in four games. He’s averaging 6.9 yards per touch. He leads the nation in rushing touchdowns (8).

* He has at least one play of 40-plus yards in every game so far. He has seven plays of 25-plus. He has 13 plays of 10 or more yards. That is game-changing, game-breaking type stuff.

* Of his 84 carries, only three have resulted in losses (totaling minus-7 yards). He keeps his legs churning and picks up plenty of hard yards in between his big gainers.

* He hasn’t put up these numbers against cupcakes. Not a single I-AA opponent in the bunch. Three top-20 teams, in fact, have been victim to his skills. He has shown off against Alabama (113 total yards, 2 TD), Marshall (200 total yards, 3 TD), Nebraska (109 total yards, TD) and Miami (190 total yards, 2 TD).

* His numbers are sure to get even better with Duke and Boston College up next. Neither of those teams have defenses that remotely approach the Tide, Huskers or Hurricanes. So Williams will be rolling as the Hokies head to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech in three weeks – just in time for another national spotlight to shine on him.

* You tell me, then ... Isn’t the flashy offensive star of the No. 6 team in the country a viable Heisman candidate? If you read the story I wrote about Williams a while back, you know that former Tech defender Loren Johnson used to say Vick was the best player he ever saw ... until he saw Williams.

* At the end of the day, what I think doesn’t matter. Well, maybe a little. I am an official Heisman voter. Right now, Williams is No. 3 on my ballot ... behind Tebow and Houston QB Case Keenum. You think that guy’s a silly pick, too? OK, then, but I’m partial to 386.7 ypg passing with 8 TD, 2 INT and three rushing scores in three games, including wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. He was super-clutch in both big wins.

* Just so you know, I’m not some big Hokie homer. I’m in my sixth season covering the team and I’ve never even briefly considered putting a Tech player on my ballot. Until now, I haven’t seen one who deserved consideration. Judging strictly by the first quarter of the season, Mr. Williams does. I’m just sayin’. Now I’ll let him say a few words ...

RB RYAN WILLIAMS

ON WHETHER HE HAS STARTED TO HEAR ANY HEISMAN TALK REGARDING HIM, AND IF SO, WHAT’S HE THINK OF IT? “Yeah, there has been talk, but I don’t really pay any attention to it. There’s thousands and thousands of college football players, and I’m not going to try to chase the Heisman. If anything, I’ll let it chase me if the opportunity comes, but I’m not going to worry about it. I’m just trying to help the team win.”

ON WHETHER HE KNOWS THE HEISMAN POSE: “No, I haven’t practiced. I haven’t practiced.”

ON PUNISHING TACKLERS AND WHERE THAT CAME FROM: “I just have a lot of heart when I go out there. I’m not the biggest guy. I always feel like I’m the smallest guy every time I touch the field, so I just try to run as hard as I can. My idol is Walter Payton, and his quote was, ‘Never die easy; Die hard.’ He never wanted to go down on first contact, and that’s one thing I try to run by.”

ON GETTING UP FOR DUKE: “I just think about last year, to be honest. Last year in the fourth quarter the score was 7-3, so I’m not really going to dwell on what they’ve done in the past. I know they’re capable of coming in and trying to win the game, just like they did last year. So I can’t really underestimate the team or the program or the players at all, because they were very close to beating us last year. We just have to come out and play our game and execute like we did Saturday, and hopefully we’ll come out with a win.”

ON DECIDING BETWEEN A JUKE AND PLOWING A DEFENDER: “It depends on the situation. If I know I can’t make a move or if they’re anticipating ahead ... I try to hit them before they can hit me.”

ON HOW LAST YEAR’S GAME WITH DUKE WAS SO CLOSE: “The five turnovers really killed us. It killed us really bad, so that’s one thing we have to come into this game and make sure we definitely don’t do. We’ve been doing a great job of not having that many turnovers. I think we only have one so far this year. We’ve been doing a great job, and we have to be consistent with that and not turn the ball over.”

ON WHETHER THE MIAMI GAME FINALLY FELT LIKE QB TYROD TAYLOR WAS PLAYING HIS KIND OF GAME: “That’s exactly how I felt. You know, we have a lot of read plays, and he read and took the ball and ran. It opens the game for us, because he can make plays with his feet and with his arm. He’s very dangerous back there as far as the defense not knowing whether he’s going to throw or run the ball. So it helps having him come back into his element as far as using his feet and running past the line of scrimmage and throwing the ball. I feel like he’s getting more comfortable back there and he’s becoming the ‘Tyrod’ that a lot of people have been saying that wasn’t there the first couple of games.”

ON WHETHER TEAMS NEED EXPERIENCES LIKE ALMOST LOSING TO DUKE TO REALIZE ANYONE CAN BEAT THEM: “Yeah, I kind of think it’s an experience thing, because last year on paper and I guess on film and just the program itself, we were the better team. But they came in here and showed that they were able to play with us through the whole game. So with that experience, it just proves that anything can happen, and it doesn’t matter what you do in the previous games or what you’ve done in the years before or how the program was in the years before. You just have to go out and play and try to execute every play. Last year we didn’t do that as much we could, and that’s why we had five turnovers.”

ON NOT BEING EXCITED TO PLAY DUKE AFTER PLAYING MIAMI AND NEBRASKA THE TWO WEEKS BEFORE: “I’m excited to play every game. It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing. If we’re playing a D-II school, I’ll just be excited as much as any game. Last week was kind of more exciting because I grew up a Miami fan. Being able to play them, I was very excited to ... be able to perform.”

ON WHETHER THE REST OF THE TEAM WILL HAVE TROUBLE GETTING EXCITED FOR THIS ONE: “As a team, I really don’t see the difference in getting up from the Miami game to this game. We just try to prepare ourselves as best we can every week, no matter who the opponent is. So that’s our goal going into practice every week.”

ON WHETHER THE TEAM TALKS ABOUT STILL HAVING A NATIONAL TITLE SHOT: “Yeah, we still have a shot, but we’re not really focused on having that shot. We just have to focus on winning each and every other game. And then at the end of the season, if we have an opportunity to play for the national championship, then that’ll be it. But as of right now, we’re not really thinking about national championship. We just have to keep executing in every game so we can win.”

ON COACH FRANK BEAMER HELPING KEEP THE TEAM ON AN EVEN KEEL BECAUSE OF HIS CONSISTENT APPROACH: “That’s coach Beamer. He doesn’t approach any game any differently, no matter who the opponent is, whether it’s Alabama or if it’s Duke. His thing is we have to come out every game and play the best that we can play, so that we can win. That’s coach Beamer.”

ON RALLYING AROUND DISRESPECT LAST WEEK AND WHAT WILL THE TEAM RALLY AROUND NOW: “I guess we just rally around ourselves no matter if we’re the underdog or being favored. Our biggest thing is we just have to go out and just play the best we can play every game.”

ON WHAT THE TALK IN THE LOCKER ROOM IS THIS WEEK: “We talk about how last week was last week and we have to move forward. There are nine games left, so we can’t really (inaudible) ourselves just because we beat Miami. We have a lot more games to go for the rest of the season. We can’t really dwell on any of the other wins we had previously. We have to keep moving forward, and that’s our thing.”

ON HAVING AT LEAST ONE 40-YARD PLAY IN EVERY GAME AND WHETHER HE WAS ITCHING FOR ONE AS IT GOT LATE IN THE THIRD QUARTER AGAINST MIAMI: “Nah, not really. I just know that if I keep getting the small chunks of yardage, one will pop eventually. Not knowing how many will pop, but knowing one will pop as I keep continuing to grind those yards out … with the weather conditions, that was my main goal. I honestly didn’t think I was going to pop one in that game, just because of the weather conditions and how slippery it was and not being able to plant my foot the way that I wanted to. But that play, I was able to plant my foot the way I wanted to and was able to spring the 40-yarder, so it felt good. I really wasn’t itching for it. I honestly didn’t think I was going to get it, but I did, and it felt good.”

ON HIS DIVING CATCH THAT WAS RULED INCOMPLETE, THEN REVIEWED AND OVERTURNED ... AND WHY HE DIDN’T REACT WHEN IT WAS RULED INCOMPLETE: “I really don’t pay too much attention to calls and things of that sort, if they ruled it complete or incomplete. I just tried my best to catch the ball. I felt in my heart that I caught the ball because I got my hands up under it and I fell on the ball before it touched the ground. I don’t even think it touched the ground. But with them ruling it incomplete, I can’t sit there and get mad about it, because we have three more quarters to play. So I just had to keep playing.”

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