Gerhart for Heisman

Tonight for the first time I got to see Toby Gerhart run. And run he did. All over the Notre Dame defense.

Now, I know we're not talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers or anything. ND is the #80 defense (and tonight won't help their case). However, Gerhart wasn't just terrific. He was an absolute beast. He ran over people at will, and made several terrific plays. He was unquestionably the reason the Stanford Cardinal-Trees won the game.

There was a play in the 4th quarter where he took the hand-off and ran right. A ND player was there for a solid tackle right around the first down marker. Gerhart lowered his shoulder and forearm, and literally ran over him like he was a tackling dummy. He simply blasted through him and kept running, almost not slowing. I lost track of the number of tackles he broke on the night.

The guy has made an impressive case for his Heisman candidacy. He has only one game where he hasn't scored a rushing TD. After tonight, he has over 1,700 yards and 25 rushing TDs, and added a throwing TD tonight. Nine of his games, he's rushed for multiple TDs. Ten with more than 100 yards rushing, three with 200+. Not sure who else has been more impressive. Ingram's getting a lot of hype and having a great year, but he's not carrying the load Gerhart is...and frankly, I think Gerhart's making a bigger impact on his team's surpassing expectations thus far this year. The rest of the field doesn't look nearly as impressive.

I'm hoping he wins it this year. He was a real treat to watch tonight. Very impressive person, and really, really impressive football player.