FourteenCollege football, read closely
  • 1,591attempted
  • 1,005completed
  • 12,088passing yards
  • 110td passes

THE CLIPPINGS

“What They’re Saying”

Nineteen clippings kept in the order the campaign filed them, each with the outbound link it was filed with. This is the raw material a Heisman case was made of — wire copy, beat columns, preseason lists and one conference release.

01

What a clippings file is evidence of

Every awards campaign keeps a file like this one, and it is worth being precise about what such a file proves. It is evidence that a name reached the people who vote — not evidence of how the season actually went.

The nineteen items below are here in the order the campaign filed them, each with the outbound link it was filed with. They come from four different kinds of source, and the difference between those kinds is the whole story. Beat reporting — the local daily, the conference release — is closest to the field and furthest from the ballot. National columns reach voters but arrive with the writer's own argument attached. Preseason lists are predictions, written before a snap was taken, and age worse than anything else in the file. Aggregators and blogs mostly restate the other three.

Read that way, a clippings file stops being a highlight reel and becomes a map of how far a candidacy travelled: which outlets picked it up, how quickly the framing hardened into a single repeated sentence, and at what point the national desks started citing each other rather than the games.

Links point outward, unchanged, to wherever each piece was published. Several of those destinations have since moved or gone dark — that decay is part of what an archive records.

Conference USA - What They're Saying About the 2014 Team

Conference USA - What They're Saying About the 2014 Team

Old Dominion Head Coach Bobby Wilder “We’ve played some pretty good teams,” including North Carolina, N.C. State, Pitt and East Carolina. “But I think this is the best team we’ve ever played. That’s an outstanding football team, I would not be surprised…

Old Dominion Head Coach Bobby Wilder “We’ve played some pretty good teams,” including North Carolina, N.C. State, Pitt and East Carolina. “But I think this is the best team we’ve ever played. That’s an outstanding football team, I would not be surprised if they go undefeated and represent the group of five teams in a major bowl game this year.”

Sports Illustrated - "The Long Shot"

Sports Illustrated - "The Long Shot"

Marshall's Rakeem Cato: Great Heisman hope for forgotten leagues

cbssports.com

You come up through the blight of Liberty City in South Florida. You endure the death of your mother at age 13. Your dad has been in jail. You show up at Marshall 155 pounds sopping wet. You might deserve a break.

You come up through the blight of Liberty City in South Florida. You endure the death of your mother at age 13. Your dad has been in jail. You show up at Marshall 155 pounds sopping wet. You might deserve a break.

The maturation of Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato

usatoday.com

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Every now and then, maybe on Mother's Day or Christmas, or whenever he sees a teammate celebrating a big win with their parents, Rakeem Cato can feel the anger start to bubble up inside.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Every now and then, maybe on Mother's Day or Christmas, or whenever he sees a teammate celebrating a big win with their parents, Rakeem Cato can feel the anger start to bubble up inside.

It’s Rakeem Cato’s 22nd birthday, and he’s decided to spend it with Tom Brady, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson.

bleacherreport.com

Marshall’s Rakeem Cato leads a trio of Thundering Herd listed in our 10 Conference USA players to watch this college football season.

orlandosentinel.com

HUNTINGTON, W.Va — Three Marshall football players have finished in the top six of Heisman Trophy balloting. The university is starting a push to see if one more Thundering Herd standout can reach that level.

charlestondailymail.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato doesn’t focus on individual awards. That’s a point he’s made many times with microphones placed in front of him. Yet he’s no stranger to those trophies.

charlestondailymail.com

HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—The 2014 campaign season has already begun and I’m not talking about the race between Shelly Moore Capito and Natalie Tennant or even Nick Rahall’s dubious political future.

wvmetronews.com

QB Rakeem Cato, Marshall Thundering Herd. 2013 Season: 298-for-499, 3,916 passing yards, 39 TDs, nine INTs; 294 rushing yards, six rushing TDs

sbnation.com

Rakeem Cato, QB, Marshall. Posted 39 TD passes and could lead Herd to an unbeaten record next fall.

athlonsports.com

Rakeem Cato, QB, SR, Marshall

heismanpundit.com

The room for error is minuscule, but Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato is a name you should keep in mind when talking about next year’s Heisman award.

bleacherreport.com

Marshall junior quarterback Rakeem Cato hopes to one day follow former Thundering Herd signal-callers Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich into the NFL.

nfl.com

Today in the life of Rakeem Cato: Ending Maryland's futile ACC stay

msn.foxsports.com

Mid-Major schools rarely churn out true Heisman contenders, but Marshall University may have its fourth candidate since moving up to the FBS (Formally D1-A) in 1997.

voices.yahoo.com

Why Rakeem Cato may be the next great long shot Heisman hopeful

thescore.com

Marshall’s Rakeem Cato Is An Overshadowed Elite QB

terrapinstationmd.com

2014 Heisman Early Front Runners – Quarterbacks

makeitrainsports.com
02

Team First

Team First

Two herdzone.com columns filed under the same idea: the awards were never the point.

Archive
03

How the votes actually work