Start the campaign -- South Carolina's defensive end should be in discussion
Just when you thought Melvin Ingram had done it all -- interceptions, fake punt touchdown runs, fumble recoveries for touchdowns, sacks -- he pulled another trick out of his hat in South Carolina's 21-3 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.
He trended on Twitter.
"I owe it all to my teammates," said Ingram of his 15 minutes of fame on everybody's favorite social networking website, which came after yet another stellar night at defensive end. This one ended with four tackles, two sacks, a tipped pass and a fumble recovery for a touchdown in the end zone.
Guess what, Melvin — the South Carolina athletic department now owes you something as well: a Heisman Trophy campaign.
"The way he [is] playing right now, yeah. He got a chance to win the Heisman," said Jadeveon Clowney, who deserves an assist for Ingram's first quarter touchdown. It was Clowney's forced fumble that led to the score.
"'You're going to be a Heisman candidate,'" continued Clowney, echoing what he said he's been telling Ingram. "I mess with him like that all the time."
Here's the thing though: Clowney may think he is pulling Ingram's leg, but he really isn't. It's the truth. Four weeks into the season, the athletic, dynamic Ingram has as legitimate a claim to being a Heisman Trophy candidate as any college football player in the country.
Are Ingram's odds of winning the Heisman small? Yes — they're about as long as one of Vanderbilt punter Richard Kent's kicks. It's virtually impossible for a defensive player to win the most storied individual honor in college football and, really, in all of sports. It's even more so for a defensive player most people outside of South Carolina didn't know about until two weeks ago in the Georgia game.
But that doesn't matter. Ingram has the credentials to be in the discussion. USC now has to help him put his name out there.
A USC athletics spokesman recently appeared on Athletics Director Eric Hyman's weekly radio show to discuss the ins and outs of devising a Heisman campaign for a deserving student-athlete after much interest in the subject from fans.
Curiosity had been peaked, mainly due to the attention surrounding Marcus Lattimore's chances to win the Heisman. USC has done some things on that front, including the creation of personal websites for Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery — marcuslattimore21.com and alshonjeffery1.com are now live.
The time has come to sink into the budget, call GoDaddy and get the domain rights to melviningram6.com. Beyond that, USC should look to come up with some other fresh, attention-grabbing ways to market Ingram.
We learned during last week's postgame press conference that Ingram has dabbled in rap music. Maybe there's something to be pursued there. I'm sure defensive line coach Brad Lawing, who has a new golden nugget or anecdote about Ingram each week, would have a few ideas to build on.
Or, maybe the school could just forget about the gimmicks and use a stats and intangibles sheet (to date: 15 tackles, two sacks, two fumble recoveries, two defensive touchdowns, one special teams touchdown, one gigantic onside kick recovery against Georgia and an interception) and a few video clips (here's Ingram hurdling over Brandon Boykin between the hedges, Heisman voters) to sell the point. That would work too.
Back in 2009, USC linebacker Eric Norwood got some buzz as a Heisman candidate in the wake of the Gamecocks' upset of fourth-ranked Ole Miss. It didn't last long, as USC elected not to pursue any sort of campaign given how difficult it is to gain traction for a candidacy as a defensive player.
That shouldn't be the case this time around. Ingram has the stats (read, touchdowns) to make things interesting for a week or two. And before you say, "It's inevitable, he'll cool off and the big plays will start coming," remind yourself that it's a third of the way through the season and it hasn't stopped yet. Ingram has emerged as USC's most valuable player. Now he deserves at least some consideration at being the entire nation's.
Any campaign probably won't end with Ingram in New York on Dec. 10 – the landscape has too many Andrew Lucks, Landry Joneses and Marcus Lattimores – but it can't hurt to try. Stranger things have happened. And no one can argue that the kid hasn't earned it. The Heisman Trust's mission statement reads that the award is meant to go to "the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity," and that description undoubtedly fits Ingram.
"I just try to go out and play hard for my team," said Ingram, humble as always, about the brilliant start to his senior season.
Now the school Ingram plays for has to go out and do the same for him.