Alternate Heisman Reality: The case for Randall Cobb, DIY warrior

Heisman ballots are in the mail. With the field of favorites rapidly narrowing down the stretch, Alternate Heisman Reality looks at some of the more deserving candidates off the beaten path. Today: Kentucky quarterback/receiver/return man Randall Cobb.

• Generic profile. Unheralded, undersized recruit who's developed into the nation's foremost four-tool utility man – as a quarterback, running back, receiver or return man, he's going to be productive, usually in the same game.

• By the numbers. Cobb leads the SEC by a mile and ranks second nationally in all-purpose yards per game, accounting for a greater share of his team's total production than all but one other player (Western Kentucky running back Bobby Rainey) in the country. That includes four 200-yard games against SEC defenses, including a 201-yard, three-touchdown effort in a 37-34 loss against Auburn that came down to the final snap of the game. Altogether, Cobb accounted for more plays of 30 yards or longer than any other player except New Mexico State's Taveon Rogers.

As a receiver alone, Cobb led the SEC with 79 catches, seven for touchdowns and nine covering at least 25 yards. (Not including the game-winning touchdown from 24 yards out to beat South Carolina a week after With 45 more yards through the air in the Wildcats' bowl game, he'll be the first 1,000-yard receiver in I-A history with 400 yards rushing in the same season.

• Intangibles hol! The numbers tell the story: Cobb is as versatile and valuable to his team as any player in the country, so much so that Urban Meyer threatened to fire the coach who failed to recruit Cobb to Florida. Not only is he the only player in the country this year who's scored as passer, rusher, receiver and return man – he's the only player whose coaches have been simultaneously confident and desperate enough to give him a fair chance at it.

• Three strikes. Cobb a) Plays for a mediocre-to-bad team that b) Has never produced a Heisman winner and c) Only played one game anyone outside of Kentucky might have actually seen. It didn't help that he immediately followed that game by taking to Twitter to bash the home crowd for a lack of enthusiasm.

• Might have a chance to join the real discussion if… He orchestrates an elaborate heist at Heisman headquarters, then makes off into the night with the trophy through a series of absurd obstacles, Raiders of the Lost Ark style. He'd get away with the fedora intact, too.

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Previously: Da'Quan Bowers, Clemson. ... Cliff Harris, Oregon. ... Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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