With the regular season in college football winding down and the the postseason awards — especially the Heisman Trophy — making their way to honorees, you have to wonder where Troy Davis would be standing right now, had he chosen to stay for his final year at Iowa State.

Davis, who finished second in last year’s balloting, would have been going for a unprecedented third consecutive 2,000-yard season. He also would have continued etching a place in college football lore with his productivity and durability.

Instead, he opted for the NFL and was drafted in the third round by the New Orleans Saints.

Now, obviously the Cyclones did not experience a great deal of success, but neither have the Saints. Davis has been relegated to the bench and forced to play for a coach, Mike Ditka, who has publicly said there is absolutely no talent in the offense and at times has seemed mentally unstable.

Coming into this year, the Heisman was all but handed to Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, and other than Michigan’s all-everything Charles Woodson, no one has stepped up to challenge Manning.

As far as running backs go, there have been a number of fine players such as Texas’ Ricky Williams, Penn State’s Curtis Ennis, and Iowa’s Tavian Banks. But none have come close to what Davis achieved with the talent surrounding him.

Manning certainly has not run away with the trophy. His quarterback passing efficiency is barely in the top 15 and both times Tennessee played on national television, he did not awe the voters. In the first game, they lost to Florida, and this past weekend, he struggled in a victory against Vanderbilt.

As far as Woodson, I think he is the best college football player and truly deserves the Heisman. But there is one thing that hurts him — he plays predominately on defense, and other than Michigan’s final game against Ohio State, he did not have a huge impact on the games.

It’s too bad even now, when they talk about Woodson, it’s only about the couple dozen times he has lined up on offense, and lately his kick returns. Doing these things consistently throughout the season would have bolstered his Heisman hopes considerably.

Even with ISU’s new found passing attack, Davis still would have gotten extremely close to 2,000 yards. Davis went two years without missing a game, whereas his brother, Darren, couldn’t even make it through two games. Yet Darren still finished with over 1,000 yards in just over seven games.

There is no way, if Troy had been here this year, that ISU would have had the worst rushing offense in the nation halfway through the season. The Cyclones also wouldn’t have been held to negative yards rushing by Iowa and zero yards against Kansas State.

You also have to wonder whether Troy ever regrets his decision. Rather than being a third-string running back on a second-rate team in New Orleans, he could have been one of the most heralded tailbacks here in Ames. And he could have made the difference in an offense which seemed to stall out at critical times. He might have even been the cornerstone of a possible turn-around season.

Scott Johnson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Holstein.