A week ago, Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins left for New York to take part in the Heisman Trophy proceedings.
He finished a distant third to winner Kyler Murray and runner-up Tua Tagovailoa, and was at times a distant memory in ESPN’s coverage.
On Wednesday, the Buckeyes met with reporters for the first time in weeks, and while receivers Terry McLaurin, Johnnie Dixon, and Parris Campbell were all huddled near their quarterback, a reporter asked if the right guy won the Heisman.
“No,” was the emphatic answer in unison from the receivers.
From ESPN.com having articles on their site featuring questions about who would win, Kyler or Tua, to ESPN Gameday having an interview with just those two and claiming that having Haskins on the set would have made things too “unwieldy,” to an unnamed reporter during an availability actually asking Haskins if he thought Tagovailoa or Murray should win, it wasn’t exactly an endearing weekend for Haskins’ teammates.
Dixon didn’t even bother watching the ceremony.
“No, I didn’t. Just the way everything was going, I didn’t appreciate it, I didn’t like it,” he said. “I knew it was gonna happen the way it did. We let him know he was our Heisman (winner). We appreciate the guy because he works tail off. He’s not one of those guys that is so good and doesn’t come to work. He comes to work. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those bad days. But the guy works his tail off.”
Let me take a swing. It’s not intended as a slight. I’ll bet if you time the words, Dwayne got more coverage. Plus, 3 at same time is an unwieldy interview. Two is max. They are playing each other. They’re likely 1-2. Simple as that. Never cease to marvel at what bothers people https://t.co/76LN9KHStW
— Rece Davis (@ESPN_ReceDavis) December 8, 2018
It wasn’t just the guys catching the ball who were upset with the way things went. The offensive line felt the same way.
“There is a similar feeling, I definitely think that Dwayne should have won the Heisman,” right tackle Isaiah Prince said.
“I thought that was kind of disrespectful that he was the invisible man when he should have been the winner, but it is what it is and God has a bigger plan. To have success you have got to have failure and maybe God is trying to show Dwayne something. Maybe it was not for him, maybe He has a bigger plan for Dwayne.”
I think that a QB that has the most touchdowns,the most passing yards than anyone else should indeed win the Heisman!Why even bother with stats if you are not going to use them to determine the best QB in the nation?I think that espn is biased when it comes to Ohio State.The only conference that they seem to care about is the sec or the big 12.!!Maybe Ohio State should move to the sec conference to give alabama a run for espn’s money!!
ESPN stinks and a huge reason for it is that useless turd Herbstreit. He still all panties in wad unhappy because Buckeye Nation ran his sissy ass out of Upper Arlington.
There is another factor I would like to throw out there. It’s a perception – an opinion – so take it as just that.
ABC/Disney/ESPN has a certain worldview that, for the purposes here, we will just call “politically correct”. I have almost stopped watching shows like CFB Live because of all the virtue signaling they do when something like, oh, Urban Meyer fires a troubled receivers coach and totally blows the explanation. They create narratives that exaggerate or, even, create a horrible violation of “the code”, and then they set out to administer shame on the violater – and in the process demonstrate their goodness. So, we get that Urban Meyer is a cold enabler, encourager, and supporter of domestic violence who only cares about winning, and The Ohio State University is complicit. That stuff fits their worldview, it draws eyeballs from everyone who hates Ohio State (which is almost everyone outside of Buckeye Nation), and it makes them feel good about themselves.
Haskins is Ohio State’s QB and Urban Meyer’s QB. They are not going to promote “bad people who do bad things”. I think that’s a significant part of what we saw at the Heisman show and the lead up to it. But they did the minimum to cover their credibility bases by throwing in an obligatory “and Haskins had a great season too” in the middle of hyping Murray and Tua – who were, certainly, worthy finalists. But no matter how they spin it, they were dismissive of Dwayne and disrespectful. Reece Davis is telling us to believe what he is telling us, not what we saw.
One of these days Fox is going to get smart and start producing a daily CFB show and a weekly recruiting show, and I will never have to watch and listen to these people who insult me ever again.
I can tell you one thing, ESPN’s credibility just took a nosedive in my books! Its not that Tua and Kyler weren’t top QB’s, it was the fact that they never gave Dwayne a chance. Why did they invite him in the first place? I believe it was the fact that they knew Tua or Kyler would win, so they invited Dwayne to make it look like he had some credibility, but not a chance to win this award! I agree with one of the comments that ESPN is anti-Ohio State University along with Coach Urban Meyer! Those two factors should have been nothing to do with the great season Dwayne Haskins had. After all, he topped a top Pro New Orleans Saints Football QB, Drew Brees, and up till this year, he had a number of B1G records, but no longer as Haskins broke a number of B1G records and set some OSU records that may never be broken. So you see, Dwayne Haskins should have been in a tight race for the Heisman and, in fact should have won that award. I don’t think he was even considered for the Maxwell Award. Anyway, ESPN is no longer a credible Sports reporting network in my books! Its too bad there isn’t another, more competitive and credible Sports network to watch or listen to. Lastly, Rece Davis’s comment was a joke! He as much as decided the race for the Heisman was over with that interview! I thought Davis was a credible commentator, but no longer! And some others at ESPN are a joke as well, Paul Finebaum for example as he’s another one that hates especially Urban Meyer as well as Ohio State!
I can tell you one thing, ESPN’s credibility just took a nosedive in my books! Its not that Tua and Kyler weren’t top QB’s, it was the fact that they never gave Dwayne a chance. Why did they invite him in the first place? I believe it was the fact that they knew Tua or Kyler would win, so they invited Dwayne to make it look like he had some credibility, but not a chance to win this award! I agree with one of the comments that ESPN is anti-Ohio State University along with Coach Urban Meyer! Those two factors should have been nothing to do with the great season Dwayne Haskins had. After all, he topped a top Pro New Orleans Saints Football QB, Drew Brees, and up till this year, he had a number of B1G records, but no longer as Haskins broke a number of B1G records and set some OSU records that may never be broken. So you see, Dwayne Haskins should have been in a tight race for the Heisman and, in fact should have won that award. I don’t think he was even considered for the Maxwell Award. Anyway, ESPN is no longer a credible Sports reporting network in my books! Its too bad there isn’t another, more competitive and credible Sports network to watch or listen to. Lastly, Rece Davis’s comment was a joke! He as much as decided the race for the Heisman was over with that interview! I thought Davis was a credible commentator, but no longer! And some others at ESPN are a joke as well, Paul Finebaum for example as he’s another one that hates especially Urban Meyer as well as Ohio State!
The media treated DH like they did the team. This should be the MVP on the best team award and limited to CFB playoff teams.
Heisman winners dont lose by 30 to Purdue.
He threw for over 470 yards in that game. He wasn’t the reason they lost. The right guy won the Heisman tho imo.
QB’s don’t play defense, it’s the for the best player and not the best team. Hesiman winners also don’t go to OT with Navy or lose to a #15 team. OSU outgained PUR in that game and DH’s passing yardage was off the charts. He was the only reason that OSU was in that game. Can a Heisman winner have a bad game? The reality is that DH”s stats easily out weigh both Tua and Kyler’s number easily.
Couldn’t agree more with this. ESPN sells irresponsible sports journalism.
ESPN is in bed the PC dogma and doctrine.
This, to me, more than anything else illustrates the anti Ohio State bias shown by ESPN. If it was just a “SJW, we hate Urban because of the Z Smith deal” thing, why would they treat Dwayne like such an afterthought when his TD and yardage stats blew everyone else away? There is a financial incentive for ESPN to disrespect the Ohio State and the Big 10, and OSU and the Big 10 better pay attention and do something about it.
ESPN is totally compromised, biased and partial. ESPN is no longer an honest broker in sports coverage. They focused on the guys in the playoff…which serves their interests. No surprise here.