Now that the “award season” in college football has concluded with the Heisman ceremony, I’d like to gripe a little bit about the whole process. What if baseball’s MVP awards were handed out after the regular season was over but before the playoffs commenced? It’s not a great policy to grant individual awards when there are 32 games left to play in the season. In fact, it’s downright silly.

The other aspect of the individual award circuit that is troubling has to do with singling a player out when there are many players contributing to their success. In some ways, I can understand quarterback awards as there is only one active at a time and that player touches the ball virtually every play throughout the offensive series. Kickers, there’s another I can understand a bit. But when you get to defenses, tail backs, receivers, offensive lines it seems counter-productive to do anything other than reward the unit as a whole.

I’m going to pick a little bit on James Laurinaitis, Butkus Award Winner for best linebacker of the season. By all accounts and measures, James is an outstanding football player. But if you want an example of unit performance, look at the Penn State/Ohio State game where Penn State had a scheme where there was always someone focused on blocking him and taking him out of the play. It was effective in that game, though the defensive unit as a whole adjusted well and dominated Penn State just the same. In that game, Laurinaitis was limited to 2 tackles vs. his average of 10 tackles per game.

Does that one game mean he doesn’t deserve the award? No, I don’t that that’s the point. The point is, it’s a defensive unit performance that matters in the end and the fact that the defensive line occupies blockers enables Laurinaitis to roam free and make plays. When that situation wasn’t working, the defense overall adjusted and still prevailed. I have to wonder if these ill-timed individual awards damage team cohesion. At a minimum, the season should be complete before handing them out.