Thirteen years have passed since Chris Weinke gave the ACC its last Heisman Trophy and a player from the conference hasn't cracked the top five in voting in 11 years.
There's been buzz about the league's chances of ending one, if not both, of those designations this season. But exactly who is the best bet to do it seems to be generating some confusion in the eyes of the gambling world.
Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd and Miami running back Duke Johnson were the highest-ranked ACC players, both listed at 16-1 in Bovada's last posted Heisman odds, which have since been taken down amid the NCAA investigation into defending winner Johnny Manziel and his eligibility for Texas A&M this fall. Boyd and Johnson were tied for 10th.
It's a view on the ACC playmakers that poses the question: is there really a debate over who the most logical contender is?
When you weigh the those old tentpoles of any Heisamn campaign -- name recognition, preseason hype, recent voter tendencies and marquee games -- everything would seem to be in Boyd's favor.
Johnson was impressive in his debut, setting a Hurricanes freshman record with 957 rushing yards, which ranked third in the conference last season. He was the ACC's leader in kickoff returns, and ranked second nationally, at 33 yards per attempt and was third in the league in all-purpose yards at 2,060. But he has just three starts under his belt, serving primarily as Mike James' backup last season.
Meanwhile, Boyd was the ACC's Offensive Player of the Year as a junior, throwing for 3,896 yards -- his second straight season of at least 3,800 -- and 36 touchdowns and added 514 yards and 10 TDs on the ground. He led the ACC in passing efficiency (165.5) and total offense (339.2 yards per game) and ended the year in stunning fashion, racking up 27 TDs (21 passing/six rushing) in the final six games, including the Chick-fil-A Bowl win over LSU.
Given the voting trends, with just one RB winning in the last 13 years -- two if you count Reggie Bush's sine vacated '05 victory -- and dual-threat QBs taking five of seven, including the last three with Cam Newton ('10), Robert Griffin ('11) and Manziel, Boyd would seem to fit the bill.
There's also the matter of the schedule and while Phil Steele's preseason tome has the Tigers with the nation's 55th-toughest slate and the Hurricanes just five spots back, Clemson's includes the kinds of matchups that could prove crucial in jump starting and closing a Heisman race.
The Tigers open with Coaches Poll No. 5 Georgia at home, then get No. 12 Florida State and finish the regular season against seventh-ranked South Carolina. Miami counters with No. 10 Florida and the Seminoles, but that FSU game is Nov. 2, leaving Johnson with potentially more than a month before ballots are due without a Top 25 game, unless either one or more of their final five opponents (Virginia Tech, Duke, Virginia and Pittsburgh) rises or they reach the ACC Championship Game.
There's also the matter of dealing with contenders on their own team, something that has proven a bigger obstacle in recent history.
Just 15 times have teammates finished in the top 5 in voting, with the last instance coming in 2008 with Texas Tech's Graham Harrell (fourth) and Michael Crabtree (fifth). In those 15 years nine of those votes saw a winner make the top 5, but that's happened just twice in 30 years, with Nebraska's Mike Rozier (first) and Turner Gill (fourth) in 1983 and then Bush and Leinart.
Boyd has wide receiver Sammy Watkins, a former All-American as a freshman. But given the tendency to side with the QB in a pass-happy offense (see Harrell and Crabtree) and that Boyd thrived last season despite Watkins' two-game suspension and subpar stats (708 receiving yards and three TDs), Watkins wouldn't seem to be in position to steal supporters away from Boyd.
QB Stephen Morris, though, is an intriguing candidate to emerge as Miami's top threat.
The senior passed for 3,345 yards, 21 TDs and seven interceptions last season and went his final 139 attempts without throwing an interception. He also drew plenty of attention in the offseason, winning the skills competition at the Manning Passing Academy, which included throwing at a target on a moving golf cart at 30, 40 and 50 yards away. Morris hit all six of his attempts, beating out a field that included the likes of Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater, Florida's Jeff Driskel, Alabama's AJ McCarron, Georgia's Aaron Murray -- and Boyd. Morris earned rave reviews from NFL.com's Bucky Brooks, who said he might be the most talented QB in college football.
That hype for Morris, coupled with the aforementioned trend of RBs falling behind in the voting -- Oregon's Kenjon Barner was ninth last season, marking the first still recognized polling where a back wasn't in the top five since '01 -- it would seem the odds for Johnson would be much longer than Boyd's.
So what gives? Ultimately, the lack of love for Boyd may have its roots in the belief that the Tigers have yet to get over the hump.
Having won the ACC just once since 1991, Clemson is no stranger to disappointment. There was 2008 when the Tigers opened No. 9 only to lose to Alabama to open an eventual 7-6 season, Willy Korn, Roscoe Crosby and Aaron Kelly's dropped pass against Boston College in '07 that would have put the Tigers in the ACC title game.
Those frustrations didn't stop with Boyd at QB, including in '11 when they rose to No. 5 only to drop three of the last five before the bowl game and then end that year with a 70-33 loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl. He's also 5-5 against Top 25 teams, including 1-2 last season, and is 0-3 against in-state rival South Carolina.
All that being said, he was the driving force behind Clemson ending its ACC championship drought in '11 and in that victory over LSU in the Chick fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, which coach Dabo Swinney called "a landmark win," Boyd completed 36 of 50 passes for 346 yards in earning the game MVP award. It's a performance that could very well be a sign that the program is ready to take the next step.
The odds-makers, though, remain skeptical.
Be it the schedule, the degree of difficulty in a conference that hasn't been a Heisman factor in more than a decade or a lack of respect due to the program's recent up and down play in the spotlight, Boyd is seen as a long shot.
But there is this: the last preseason frontrunner to actually win the award was Leinart in '04 and the last four winners, Mark Ingram, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel were all missing from nearly everyone's preseason watch list.
These days, a long shot isn't a bad place to start.
