COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Johnny Manziel did not win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, even though he has probably won the Heisman Trophy.
It would be nice if it were that easy, if he had one of those so-called "Heisman Moments" that removes all doubt as to who the winner is. But Manziel's season was not like that. But here's what he did in a 59-29 win for No. 9 Texas A&M (10-2, 6-2 SEC) over Missouri (5-7, 2-6) Saturday at Kyle Field:
He threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns.
He ran for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
He broke Cam Newton's SEC total offense record.
He made two twisting, turning, burning, yearning touchdown passes — the kind of plays that have become his signature — that were so dazzling, so cartoonish, all you could do was laugh.
In 20 or 30 years you'll say of some nifty scrambler, "He's like a modern-day Johnny Manziel," and everybody will know exactly what you're talking about.
Some would say his Heisman moment came in Texas A&M's win over then-No. 1 Alabama, in which he led a late drive on the road to give the Aggies the lead. But even after that week, most of the informal polling suggested Kansas State's Collin Klein was the favorite.
No, there was no Heisman moment. Just a Heisman season.
"Have you ever seen anybody like Johnny?" Texas A&M wide receiver Kenric McNeal said. "I think he deserves it."
The votes have not yet been cast, of course, so someone else technically could win the thing. One of the candidates, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, has had a wonderful season and is the best player on the No. 1 team in America. Te'o leads a defense that might be the best in college football. He also has had a knack for making interceptions in the biggest possible moments. He picked off his seventh of the year on Saturday at USC.
Somebody asked Texas A&M linebacker Sean Porter how impressed he was with Te'o.
"I'm not as impressed as I am with Johnny Manziel," Porter said.
Te'o was facing another great candidate Saturday in USC receiver Marqise Lee. Lee is clearly the best wide receiver in the country. He had five catches for 75 yards in a loss to Notre Dame Saturday and now has 112 catches for 1,680 yards and 14 touchdowns this year. The receptions and receiving yards both lead the nation.
Klein still deserves mentioning here, too. His numbers are not quite as good as Manziel's, but he plays in a slower-paced offense. He has 3,093 total yards. His team has just one loss. Although a bad day in a blowout loss at Baylor last week probably ended any realistic shot he had at winning the Heisman, there will be some who argue that Manziel had a stinker of his own (a three-interception day in a loss to LSU), and that Klein's team has a better record.
But Manziel has the best numbers of anybody, he has the best win of anybody and his team is no slouch at No. 9. There aren't really any scabs to pick at there.
Some will say Manziel is the beneficiary of circumstance. USC's season fell apart, Kansas State and Oregon gagged, Alabama didn't have a serious candidate, the best player on Notre Dame was a linebacker. Things like that. They will say the trophy defaulted to him.
But look at the numbers again, and understand them.
Manziel, a redshirt freshman, has more yards than Tim Tebow had when he won the Heisman as a sophomore in 2007. They are more than Cam Newton had when he compiled one of the greatest seasons in college football history.
Through 12 games, they are about the same as Robert Griffin III's when he won the Heisman last year.
Through 12 games:
• Manziel: 4,600 yards, 43 touchdowns
• Griffin III (2011): 4,642 yards, 45 touchdowns
• Newton (2010): 3,590 yards, 43 touchdowns
• Tebow (2007): 3970 yards, 51 touchdowns.
Statistically, Manziel's season holds up among the most legendary in college football history, and like Newton and Tebow before him, he did it in the SEC, against the nation's best defenses.
"You put Johnny's numbers up against anybody in a single season, not just this year, but any year, anybody that's every played the game, and they speak for themselves," Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. "And I think the voters are going to recognize that. … You put that in combination with the league we're playing in, and the voting goes without saying."
Some critics may call him a system quarterback, and certainly Kevin Sumlin's quarterbacks have heard that charge before. The argument goes that the numbers might be amazing, but they don't really count because Texas A&M's offense is designed to get a lot of yards. Or something like that. It's always tough to pin down exactly what that term is supposed to make us think.
It is true that Manziel's statistical totals would probably be lower if he switched places with, say, Klein. But could the same not have been said of Tebow running Urban Meyer's offense, or Newton running the zone read?
This is the game now. This is the modern iteration of college football offense. That it doesn't resemble the traditional, or the professional game, is not a valid argument that it is phony.
Besides, nobody who watches Texas A&M on a weekly basis sees many real similarities between Manziel and Case Keenum or Colt Brennan or any of those Texas Tech guys. Yes, the offenses operate on similar principles. But Manziel is not a rubber-stamped, trigger man, he's the weapon himself.
And he blasted Missouri on Saturday night. The Heisman winner will be announced Dec. 8 in New York, which means we saw Manziel's last chance to look like something other than the most productive, most electrifying, most important player in college football.
How'd that go? Well, with 8:32 left and Texas A&M up 59-23, A&M sent Manziel out to the huddle, then had Jameil Showers run out there to replace him. It was a curtain call.
And as winter finally arrived in southeast Texas, a cry rang out: "Johnny! Johnny! Johnny!"
