I don't know how many people are aware of this, as I myself was not until today, but Nissan, the sponsoring corporation for the Heisman Trophy, has the ability to cast one vote deciding the winner. As the benevolent company that they are, they have decided to pass this vote onto the public and allow people to vote online to decide for themselves. As was made evident after I voted and saw the results, not many Notre Dame fans seem to know about this as Brady Quinn currently holds only 2 percent of the vote. Troy Smith holds a commanding lead, followed by Steve Slaton of West Virginia and McFadden of Arkansas. Slaton holds votes in the hundreds of thousands, while Quinn has around 2,500.
The site allows voting only once per week, but I propose that we as a Notre Dame community get behind this vote to ensure that Quinn gets recognition for the hard work that he has put in this year both on and off the field, as success does not come just by showing up on Saturday (especially for a quarterback). Surely a school like Notre Dame has the combined fan power to cast some votes in meaningful numbers to change the current state of the fan poll.
Michael Mashura
sophomore
Dillon Hall
Nov. 12