FanHouse Eric Berry

Three weeks ago, I wrote that the Big Three of Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, and Sam Bradford would end up being the big two, and that the 2009 Heisman race would feature several players that were just on the periphery of the Heisman hunt in the preseason. One week in, that's already happened. Following an unfortunate shoulder sprain, Sam Bradford is out of the running. That leaves Tebow and McCoy as the leaders in the clubhouse, but guarantees that a couple of guys no one is talking about will snag invites to New York for the Heisman ceremony.

Last week I wrote a piece explaining that Eric Berry was Tennessee's redemption for Charles Woodson's unjustified Heisman Trophy in 1997. I was pleased to see that every Michigan fan that responded agreed that Woodson's victory was illegitimate. It's so nice when we can all come together and agree on things.

Let's now look at something for this season: Can anyone other than Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, or Colt McCoy win the Heisman? I think the answer is yes.

I was in the hospital when Charles Woodson beat out Peyton Manning to win the 1997 Heisman Trophy. It was my freshman year of college, and I was still fighting the battles of a pre-adolescent; my tonsils had just been removed. I was in surgery when the ceremony date arrived and I didn't find out the result until the next morning. My dad called the hospital from Nashville, and I was still a bit woozy from the surgery.

"Well," he said, "Charles Woodson won it."

You know how sometimes if you're a fan of a team, there's a certain player, era, game or event that an opposing fan base throws out during a fan debate and you are left without a response?

Yeah, the video after the jump is it for Tennessee fans.

Lane Kiffin has made his splash at Tennessee. The next step?

"Now we need to go win some games," the first-year head coach of the Volunteers said Friday at SEC Football Media Days in Hoover, Ala.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

If He Can Get On The Field, Play Ball -- It's come to this: the 13-year-old brother of Tennessee safety Eric Berry has pledged to play football for the Vols. Nevermind that he's not even in high school, but the kid's set on Orange and who is Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to say no? The saving grace in all of this is that verbals are non-binding and four years is a lot of time to fill where both parties could easily part ways.

Christmas decorations begin in late August, and now the ClayNation Hypesman Watch (CHW) is here in the first week of May. It's part of a new term, I just coined: Heisman Creep. (And it has nothing to do with Maurice Clarett). We're going to try something radical here, every other week or so we'll drop in and give you a top 10 list for Heisman candidates. Even though most of them are finishing their spring finals right about now. The goal is to ridicule the Heisman obsession, keep us entertained, and write about the Heisman in a way no one else is.

And, plainly, it's never too early to start debating the most over-hyped award this side of a kindergarten valedictorian.

The 2010 NFL draft is still 51 weeks away, and yes, a whole lot will change during the 2009 college football season. But millions of us are obsessed with the NFL draft, so with the 2009 draft now behind us, let's take a very early look ahead at potential No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, as well as the other top players in the Class of 2010.

There's an old coaching saying attributed to Bear Bryant (though most old coaching sayings are attributed to Bryant) that says you lose a conference game for every freshman you start. Last year, Florida started Percy Harvin, and lost a game. They also won SEC and national championships. That's probably why over the summer Urban Meyer said that, starting with his top-ranked 2007 recruiting class, he doesn't plan on redshirting freshmen anymore.

So again, this post probably could have featured at least five Gators to watch in 2007. But instead, let's start with a freshman who may be starting from day one at one of Florida's rivals...

1. Eric Berry, DB, Tennessee

Eric Berry has pulled off two impressive yet disparate feats: he ran a 4.33 in an electronically timed 40-yard dash, and he has drawn comparisons to Peyton Manning. Obviously, the Manning thing isn't because they have similar speed, but because Berry is considered to be the most important recruit to show up in Knoxville since sainted Peyton in the mid-90s. The only reason Berry was a five-star athlete coming out of high school is that they don't give anybody six stars. He was the number one player in Georgia, the number one cornerback nationally (he also ran for over 1,200 yards and threw for 1,000 his senior season as a quarterback), and the number three overall player nationally. His father, James, was a captain for the Vols in the late 1970s, but the legend will say that it was not his legacy status that drew the younger Berry to UT, but Fulmer and Cutcliffe's insistence that Berry would play in a scheme similar to Arkansas' famed 'Wildcat' package used with Darren McFadden. How quickly Berry sees the offensive side of the ball will likely depend on how fast he secures his role as a starting corner for the Vols, where he will fill one of the holes left by Jonathan Wade, Antwan Stewart, and the injured Inky Johnson. Early reports are that Berry is physically ready and mentally mature, so it might not take long.