Strike a pose

It has been too long since I have posted something. With this being Big Ten Championship week, this is a perfect time to resume.

There are a lot of great players in college football, but three are above the rest, in my opinion: Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper, Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon and the probable Heisman favorite, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Mariota and Cooper are great players, but you will not convince me they are above Gordon. Obviously I am biased, but what Gordon is doing is incredible. At a remarkable 2,260 yards, the Doak Walker Award favorite has a chance to break the single-season record of 2,628 yards by former Oklahoma State and Detroit Lions standout Barry Sanders. He has two games left to try to eclipse Sanders. He needs to average 184.5 yards in the last two games to break the record. He currently is fourth on the single-season list. His last two games will come against Ohio State this Saturday and then the bowl game. Yesterday, Gordon was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and on Monday was named first-team all-Big Ten by both the media and coaches.

What makes this season that much more impressive is that Wisconsin has struggled to consistently pass the football. Out of 128 FBS teams, Wisconsin ranks 119th. The young, inexperienced wide receivers have struggled to get open and it has put more pressure on Gordon. With Mariota and Cooper, there is a ton of talent around them. In Cooper's case, he has a good quarterback in Blake Sims in addition to a very talented running back in T.J. Yeldon to help take some of the pressure off Cooper. Gordon has to do it all himself basically.

Gordon has rushed for at least 120 yards in every contest this year against an FBS team, including a then-FBS record 408-yard performance against Nebraska Nov. 15. He has broken the 200-yard mark five times on the season. It has been perhaps the best season a running back has had since Sanders' incredible 1988 campaign. In 2011, Montee Ball came close to eclipsing Sanders' single-season touchdown record, but had to settle for a tie at 39. Ball was invited to New York as a Heisman finalist, and Gordon will most certainly land there as well.

Mariota is the favorite. but Gordon is right up there. With another big game on a national stage against No. 5 Ohio State. Gordon could win himself the Heisman Trophy. He has earned it with this once-in-a-lifetime season he has put together.