I was bummed out as the season went on monitoring this award, because despite the intrepid efforts of a myriad of college football wunderkinds doing their best to try and dreg up every potential candidate for this award - linebackers, safeties, defensive linemen, centers, wide receivers - the right answer was basically undeniable, wearing number ten and working with a smooth, robot efficiency that left every team in the wake of the Buckeyes.

Then the BCS Title game happened, where Troy Smith was sacked more often than he completed passes, delivering his usual lasers into the arms of Florida defenders or into the University of Phoenix Stadium grass.  While Notre Dame's favored son had played his own way out of the award in the bowl games just as Darren McFadden had done earlier in the season, there were a host of new candidates.  I'm not sure if you'll be disappointed or elated, but I know you'll be surprised by our 2006 MaxwellPundit College Football Player of the Year.

Thanks to a lot of our voters taking the time to outline folks they didn't vote for, we have loads of information to sort through, and I suggest you take a look at all of their respective ballots here:

BurntOrangeNation
DawgSports
Conquest Chronicles
BruinsNation
SundayMorningQB
RockyTopTalk
MGoBlog
UDubDish
Rakes of Mallow

In reverse order, your top five...

5) Darren McFadden, Humanity Advanced, Arkansas

"On New Year's Day, he was distinctly the second-best Razorback tailback, although 19 rushes for 89 yards is far from shameful. Rarely do we see a player of McFadden's speed, power, and versatility, though; in addition to rushing for 1,558 yards in the regular season and in the S.E.C. championship game, he was impressive under center from the Louisiana-Monroe game forward, hitting six of his eight pass attempts for 72 yards, three touchdowns, and one pick. Those numbers are small, but their impact was large and, as someone who was sitting in the upper deck of Sanford Stadium for the 2005 homecoming game, I can tell you firsthand . . . dude is fast". - DawgSports

"Sheer improbability counts for something. Earns major style points for the Wildcat stuff. Featured in one of the year's turning point plays; threw touchdowns when too bored to run them in himself; arose and dragged Arkansas through the muck. This year's Atlas, and next year's, too, if Mustain doesn't improve quickly. Bonus points for nickname and tendency to zip into endzones." - MGoBlog

McFadden was the Heisman and MaxwellPundit runner-up, but his lack of punch in the final two games of the season cost him.  He was also saddled with the rather awkward position of being the quarterback most of the time, and even when he wasn't lined up under center, was easily the best quarterback in his own backfield.  Also loses points for the general awesomeness of Felix Jones, but if the Future Fear Index is any sort of indicator, there can't be a team - even one with all sorts of SEC speed - that want to play a healthy, rested McFadden next season.  Troy: You're on notice.

4) Calvin Johnson, Death From Above, Georgia Tech

"When in doubt, pick the guy who was occasionally in a different dimension than anyone else on the field and occasionally ignored, but definitively the former the instant the maddening Reggie Ball qualifier removed himself from the situation. And who helped design, build and implement a solar-powered latrine system for destitute Bolivians in the Andes.

There are two great knocks against Johnson: his o-fer at Clemson and a minor (3 touches, 23 yards, no scores) performance at Georgia, both damaging Tech losses. The latter can't even be blamed on Ball, exactly, who at least attempted to get his receiver involved, though in typically erratic fashion. But Johnson's not considered the best player in April's draft for disappearing in big games: 7 for 111 and a touchdown against Notre Dame, 6 for 165 and two touchdows at Virginia Tech, 10 for 133 and a touchdown against Maryland, 5 for 68 and a touchdown against Miami, 8 for 117 in the misfire-heavy ACC Championship Game that should stand in companion with the UGA game a week earlier as the piece d'resistance of Ball's inaccurate reign, 9 for 186 and two touchdowns sans that albatross in the Gator Bowl. Also thoroughly dominated NC State and Virginia. But then, not all production is created equal, anyway, when it looks like this." - SMQ

"Georgia Tech lost its bowl game, but it wasn't Calvin Johnson's fault, as he caught the ball nine times, gained 186 yards, and scored two touchdowns. Johnson was held in check a few times this season, but that may have had more to do with QB Reggie Ball than with Johnson himself." - RockyTopTalk

It would be fun to just extrapolate Calvin's Ball-less numbers from the bowl game across a season and drool at the sheer ginmormity of those statistics.  Aw hell, just for fun: 2418 yards and 26 touchdowns on 117 catches.  At least on the "Watching him in person against a crappy Irish defense and cringing in fear" level, the only person above Johnson over the last three years is Reggie Bush.  He's bigger than your cornerbacks, but he's also significantly faster, and despite one of the best receiver skill-sets to pass through collegiate football since Larry Fitzgerald, the Yellow Jacket maintained Larry's humility throughout.  Also a fun exercise: Imagine Terrell Owens with Reggie Ball as his quarterback for four years.  You will be missed in the NCAA, CJ.

3) Ian Johnson, Mean Machine of Cheerleader and Touchdown Scoring, Boise State

"Against a very solid Oklahoma squad in the Fiesta Bowl, the Bronco tailback averaged only 4.4 yards per carry and his longest run of the day covered 16 yards . . . a feat equaled by B.S.U. Q.B. Jared Zabransky, who has deceptive speed inasmuch as he is slower than he seems. Nevertheless, Johnson turned his 23 carries into 101 crucial yards and a touchdown, figures which do not include the game-winning two-point conversion scamper. In 11 previous outings (Johnson did not play against Utah State), he amassed 1,613 yards and 24 touchdowns on 253 carries. On top of which, the dude proposed to a cheerleader after the Fiesta Bowl, which counts for some major style points." - DawgSports

"By now every college football fan America know what Ian and his teammates against a solid Oklahoma team in the Fiesta Bowl. He ended up rushing over 1,700 yards and 25 TDs this past season, including the great performance in the most riveting game of this bowl season." - BruinsNation

Ian Johnson was our under-the-radar guy all season, unearthed by Kyle and embraced by a lot of the other voters.  His numbers were astounding, from the giant bag filled with touchdowns to the fact when he ran the ball, on average, you could not tackle him until six yards after the line of scrimmage.  While our other favored son, McFadden, burst onto the mainstream scene, Johnson's only contribution was the knitting feature of College Gameday.  Then the Fiesta Bowl happened, and he had his "MaxwellPundit Moment".  Overtime, Statue of Liberty, two-point conversion, victory, proposal: win-win-win.  Only a sophomore, Johnson will be back to wreck more havoc alongside fellow juniors McFadden, Ray Rice and Steve Slaton next year.

2) Reggie Nelson, The Last Thing You See Before The Lights Go Out, Florida

"There's a lot I dislike about today's college football coverage on television - starting with the human beings being paid to talk during the broadcasts. One truly wondrous development, though, is those outstanding floating cameras that shoot film from just over the action on the field. When they replay a down from that floating angle, you get a reasonable facsimile of what the quarterback saw as he dropped back to pass.

On Monday night, every time we saw what Troy Smith saw, there was Reggie Nelson leading his secondary to blanket coverage of the Buckeye receivers. Dudes were just never open. As crappy as Ohio State's line was - and they were bad - the Florida secondary was smothering, too. Nelson was a huge reason why. There weren't any big numbers for Nelson to have because the Buckeyes could not move the football. The guy's a monster." - BurntOrangeNation

"I will admit to the possibility that I have been seduced by extracurriculars that have little impact on his play on the field (Orson's mancrush, his ability to fill the disappointing shoes of the last guy who looked like the Predator, Omar Jacobs, with bone-mangling authority befitting the hairstyle -- which should now be passed on to sufficiently badass Florida safeties until the stars grow cold and dim, like the #1 finds its way onto the shoulders of Michigan receivers). But six interceptions and a convincing case from various announcers during Florida games that a fair number of the rest of Florida's staggering total of 21 picks were caused either directly or indirectly by Nelson make a convincing case outside of personal biases. Florida was fourth in pass efficiency difference in a year when knowledgeable Florida fans were downright panicking about everyone other than Nelson in the secondary.

Plus... you know you're dealing with some sort of eccentric football genius if you've ever watched the guy line up 15 yards deep presnap. Who does that? Who aligns themself like that and singlehandedly removes the deep pass from every opponent? A cover-two in one body, I give you Reggie Nelson." - MGoBlog

"Hard-hitting, quarterback/receiver-terrifying, ball-seeking missile par excellence. Quiet championship, though probably not enough has been made of the Gator secondary's contributions to Smith's misery Monday, its blanket coverage at least as much as front seven dominance at the root of several sacks and probably also the throat-stomping strip cum Florida touchdown before half. SMQ was hardly the only person to link to this video last week, but he does it again here to suggest, among other feats therein, the play against Mohammed Massaquoi at 1:42 is among the most impressive in football history by a player who never touches the ball or another player and tells you pretty much all you need to know about the effect Nelson's presence alone could have on opposing offenses." - SMQ

A Florida fan favorite all season, Nelson's collection of hard hits and general receiving game disrupting chaos - seriously, just search YouTube for "Reggie Nelson", or "Receivers crapping themselves", if you like - were the soul of the fantastic Gator defense all season long.  Nelson was robbed of the Thorpe by Aaron Ross, but got his revenge on the grandest stage - sorta.  Reggie, his grin and his cohorts in the defensive backfield were so good that he was denied the chance of some embarrassing, decleating hit on a helpless Buckeye, and the front four so good that no blitzes were needed, meaning you never got to see Troy Smith's eyes widen as he realized who was bearing down on him.  Would have been a worthy winner, but in the wise words of John B. L. Soule, "Go West, young man".

Your 2006-2007 MaxwellPundit Award Winner...

1)    Colt Brennan, The Island Gunslinger, Hawaii

"I included him in my last list for top-5. And he justified with a spectacular performance against ASU in the Hawaii bowl (passing for 559 yards and 5 TDs). His end of season numbers are just astonishing with over 5,500 yards (almost 10 yards per attempt, a mind boggling 72.6 percent completion, and 58 TDs (12 picks). As I mentioned before he put up these numbers against all kinds of competition including throwing for over 350 yards against a stingy Crimson Tide defense in Alabama. He belongs here. Clearly one of the best players in 2006-07 season." - BruinsNation

"Hawaii dominated its bowl game, as expected, but get this, Brennan had 559 (not a typo!) yards passing in the game. Oh, and five TDs to only one interception. He finished the season with the nation's best passing efficiency (a 72.63 completion percentage), 5,549 yards,  and almost double (58 to 32) the number of touchdowns of his closest competition." - RockyTopTalk

"Yes, I know . . . it's just the system. Against Arizona State, though, the island gunslinger hooked up on 33 of his 42 tosses, tallying 559 yards through the air and having a five-to-one touchdowns-(plural)-to-interception-(singular) ratio. His Hawaii Bowl quarterback rating was 224.9; when it gets to 225, sell. Over the course of the regular season, Brennan piled up 4,990 yards and threw 53 touchdown passes, as opposed to just 11 picks, and those gaudy numbers were not the result of facing weak competition. Need proof? Against Alabama, Boise State, Nevada, Oregon State, Purdue, and San Jose State, Brennan threw for 2,394 yards, 21 touchdowns, and six interceptions." - DawgSports

"Mel Kiper says he's a "system" guy. Whatever, Mel. He still had - what - 80 touchdowns? Okay, 58. And he threw for five touchdowns against Boise State! They are a good football team, no? Brennan's numbers are inflated, yes, but when you're pretty much doubling up the rest of the field, this is more than just floating through the system. You're playing great, great football." - BurntOrangeNation

"That's a pretty good non-conference schedule, to say nothing of the cache torching Boise within a touchdown of its undefeated life holds now. But what's astounding about Brennan's numbers is that they're not just the result of throwing the ball a whole lot - he led the nation in completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown percent (attempts per touchdown) and voodoo passer rating, each of which is relative and has nothing to do with the number of times the ball is in the air. Even if it took 14 games against mostly WAC-ky secondaries, setting the single-season touchdown mark is pretty good; one player (Graham Harrell) got within twenty touchdowns, but no closer." - SMQ

If someone would have told me at the beginning of the season that only one quarterback made the final top five, you would have assumed that quarterback to be either Troy Smith or Brady Quinn, perhaps Brian Brohm, but we've got upset city.  If I hear system quarterback from a WAC school as an argument against him one more time, I'm going to smash a ukulele over the opponent's head.  At some point in time the system becomes an excuse, as you still have to make the reads and complete the passes, all at absurdly high rates.  Stealing this from Kyle and SMQ, if you want to discount the stats against crappy WAC teams, go right ahead, but if that's the case, you need to erase the bottom half of all the other top quarterback's statistics and still look at the gap between Brennan and everyone else.  

Including the two-touchdown, two-pick day against Oregon State, Brennan combined for 25 touchdowns and seven picks against Alabama, Boise State, Nevada, San Jose State, Purdue, Oregon State and Arizona State.  If you just want to play the Calvin Johnson game and double those numbers instead of including the lighter fare on the Rainbow Warrior's schedule, that's still fifty touchdown passes and a completion percentage that never dipped below 68.8 percent.

Final Standings