Three-point stance: Heisman talk; a Gator 'what-if'; Texas mishaps

Today’s edition looks at Michigan’s Heisman contender, how the Gators would be national champs by now with one recruiting flip and is Charlie Strong making mistakes again?

MORE FARRELL: College football thoughts | Clemson, Nebraska and Mark Dantonio

Let’s start the movement to get Michigan do-everything star Jabrill Peppers into the Heisman discussion, if that actually hasn’t happened already. I see him on a few Heisman watches already, but he should be higher than many have him.

Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson is the September Heisman winner and could run away with it throughout the season, although Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett and Clemson QB DeShaun Watson will also be there in the end. But can we look beyond quarterbacks? Defensive players need more love.

I know Peppers is an outstanding special team’s player and his return against Colorado sealed the deal for the Wolverines, but it’s his work on defense that should get the most attention. Under new defensive coordinator Don Brown, Peppers is now the weapon he was projected to be when he came out of high school. Against a good Colorado team, Peppers had nine tackles, one sack and 3 1/2 tackles for a loss as well as quarterback hurry in addition to his 24 yards rushing, 81 yards on kick returns and 99 yards on punt returns with that key score.

Peppers leads the country in tackles for a loss, has three sacks from his hybrid linebacker position and accounts for more negative yardage than anyone I’ve seen so far. Yes, he needs to rush the ball and be a monster in the return game to get a look because the Heisman voting is stupid, essentially eliminating every defensive player in the country before the season starts and narrowing down to quarterbacks and running backs by mid-season. But shouldn’t the most versatile and well-rounded player in college football be in the constant Heisman chatter moreso than players who have their hands on the ball every play? Yes. #PeppersForHeisman. Get it started and let’s give defenders some love.

Ok, you’re going to think I’m absolutely insane but hear me out. The Florida Gators could be defending national champs this season and the clear favorite to win it all in 2016. How? If only a guy named Lamar Jackson, who wore a Florida Gators backpack on Signing Day in 2015 as he was torn between his commitment to Louisville and the hard press from Jim McElwain and the Gators staff, had done the chomp instead of heading to Louisville.

Now let’s be clear, this isn’t wishful thinking as I don’t care who wins what games or what recruits pick what schools, but I love to play “what if”. Last season, as a true freshman quarterback, Jackson burst onto the national scene throwing for 1,840 yards and 12 scores and rushing for 960 yards and 11 more touchdowns. So imagine if he was the true freshman starter for the Gators or even if he was the guy who replaced Will Grier following his suspension. With a defense that gave up 16.5 points-per-game and was in the national top 15 in both run and passing defense as well as fifth in the nation in sacks, would they have lost to LSU or been thumped by Florida State with Jackson under center instead of Treon Harris? And even if they lost one of those two games, would they have lost to ‘Bama in the SEC title game, a game where quarterback play for Florida destroyed them? We know that dual-threat quarterbacks can give the Tide fits and we know an effective offense would certainly have put less stress on the Florida defense, so who knows?

OK, I might be reaching a bit, but at least think about it. The Gators with Jackson instead of Harris, Luke Del Rio and Austin Appleby. Louisville fans shudder at the thought.

“It” happened a little bit last season when Texas beat Oklahoma, but more so this year after the Lonhghorns beat Notre Dame and earned a Top 25 ranking for the first time in forever. What is “it”? “It” is hope.

While Texas fans think I hate the Longhorns (join every other fan base by the way), I have written many times that I think a strong Texas team (no pun intended) is important not only for the Big 12, but for college football in general. But here we go again.

How on earth does Texas lose to Cal? How on earth does Texas throw the ball 39 times against a Cal team that was clearly outmatched up front and had no chance of handling the physical Longhorns run game? And how on earth does Charlie Strong punt with less than two minutes left down by seven when his defense hadn’t stopped Davis Webb and Cal all game long?

But you know what bothers me the most? Once again, Strong is “evaluating” coaches early in a season one year after demoting Shawn Watson after the opener at Notre Dame last year. Some fans might like this and feel that it shows the coach won’t accept anything but the best from his coaches, but to me a move like this always shows panic and sends a message of panic throughout a program and to recruits. Now defensive coordinator Vance Bedford is watching his back as Strong will now be “more involved” in the defense and the Texas coaches will need to answer more questions on the recruiting trail, questions that could be avoided had Strong kept his comments in house.

And essentially none of this should have happened. Texas should have steamrolled Cal with its power running game, which would have controlled the clock and kept Cal’s offense off the field a bit more and avoided any bad decision to punt or go for it late in the game. From poor game-planning to poor decision-making in games and now back to the panic button on coaches he handpicked to lead Texas, Strong continues to make mistakes. Yes this is a young team, but so is Ohio State. And we know how Urban Meyer is doing with his young group of players.