John Tamanaha

Let's face it, this year’s Heisman Trophy race is basically over.

The fact that he had a sub par outing last Saturday and is still the clear frontrunner just goes to show how far Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith has positioned himself in front of the pack.

Ballots for this election aren’t due until Dec. 6, and the award won’t be handed out in New York City until Dec. 9, but you may not need to wait for a single vote to be counted.

The titanic Ohio State-Michigan showdown on Saturday, is basically the Heisman Trophy ceremony show.

(Since both teams inexplicably almost self-destructed last weekend against underwhelming foes, we are now required to mention that Ohio State and Michigan each have to survive one more 60-minute football game, before they can meet as undefeateds.)

A Buckeye victory over the Wolverines would bring three glorious things to Columbus — a 31^st Big Ten title, a trip to Glendale, Ariz., for the BCS championship game and a record-tying seventh Heisman Trophy via a landslide victory.

Amazingly enough, Smith’s stats in the latest “Game to End All Games” really don’t have much bearing on his candidacy.

The most important statistics are the “0” in Ohio State’s loss column and the “1” next to its national ranking.

Even if Ohio State loses for the first time in more than 13 months, Smith still takes the 25-pound Heisman home if he merely puts up numbers in the neighborhood of his current season averages -- 15.8-of-23.7 for 200.6 yards and 2.2 touchdowns.

That’s because the 924 electors won’t hold a loss to the nation’s No. 2 team against Smith individually and the paltry field of 2006 Heisman candidates isn’t strong enough to siphon off enough votes.

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But, of course, there has to be a “Plan B,” just in case the improbable happens ... and surprise, surprise, it’s Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn.

In college football the spotlight always shines brightest on the person who takes the snaps from center at Notre Dame.  The incumbent there practically has to be considered a Heisman candidate each preseason.

But for Quinn to overtake a one-loss Smith in this postseason competition, a specific set of occurrences would have to play out perfectly.

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Quinn, who finished fourth in last year’s balloting, has looked Heisman-worthy this season, but his campaign took a direct hit with the loss to Michigan in South Bend on Sept. 16, when he threw three interceptions and completed a season-low 50 percent of his passes.

In the six games since that loss, Quinn has thrown for more than 300 yards four times, while tossing 19 touchdown passes and just one interception.  In addition, he led the Irish to high-profile and extremely dramatic come-from-behind victories over Michigan State and UCLA.

All of that puts him in position to possibly pull a Heisman out of his helmet. Obviously, he has some catching up to do, but there is a way — albeit highly unlikely — and the schedule does cooperate.

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Beano Cook’s old adage about winning the Heisman -- “Either you have to play for No-trah Dame or you have to beat No-trah Dame” -- holds lots of water, but it needs to be amended.

Since the Irish haven’t taken home the hardware in nearly 20 years and USC’s Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush have won three of the last four, it would be more appropriate for him to say: “To win the Heisman, you either have to play for Southern Cal or No-trah Dame, or beat Southern Cal or No-trah Dame.”