football league. we continue here joined by our 49ers insider and tim from the san jose news. time, i'm going to open with you. let's start with andrew luck. is this heisman liz his to lose or is it a pretty wide open race? >> it's getting wide open. they kind of use luck as the front runner and then judge other people versus what he does and then try to rise and fall based on where luck is. i think robert baylo rrr might the leader. people kind of establish a front runner and then try to take shots to see if he can rise or fall based on everything else that happened. right now, robert give fin is hot. i think that luck may be, you know, second right now. but we'll see how the votes come in. >> matt, i want to take a guy who win it is heisman. should we think, gosh, the guy who gets the hardware, he has to be an nfl prospect. >> no, not at all. the guy who is the heisman is the best college football player

that's voted by a bunch of people who don't know the nfl game. what you have to look at for a college play ser how did that player's skill set translate to the nfl. when you look at tim teebow, for instance, he did not have a skill set that translated to the nfl. the nfl has pretty much had to remake its rules as far as what the broncos asked tim teebow to do. so, no, ilt's not a guarantee that the heisman trophy winner is going to find success. >> all right, tim. rob bert griffin iii played the last game of any of the heisman hopefuls. does he get a little bit of a bump? he gets a nice win over texas. he gets to put up more numbers. is that that last impression? >> what have you done for me lately. you've got to succeed, you know. and if stanford had beaten oregon, they would have gotten in. but they didn't get in the pac-12 championship game.

it is. if it's a close race, what are you going to base it on? it's the last race that you saw, in many cases. i think griffin gets a huge bump. richa richardson didn't get to play, so he gets a little bit of a backseat. i compare it to the presidential race. people just don't -- there's no rules about how you're supposed to vote. there's no exact bylaws and people change their minds all of the time. you go with the hottest thing. and you change your mind again and change your mind again. rob bert griffin is a high guy right now just because he had a big game. this is going to go down the wire just because, look, it's probably people recognizing he's the best player. but he's not the hottest candidate. he didn't have the last moment where you say that guy looks like a heisman award winner. that's how people are judging it. i look at the heisman race as sort of like the preseason polls in football. everybody has their favorites before the season. it becomes a horse race. why people don't just wait until

the end, they always have to assess. weekly things. who's leading now, who's leading now. because andrew luck has been the guy from day one, i think he has to get beaten for that. and i don't think he's done anything to remove himself from that top spot. i think he's going to get it. >> all right. i'm going to ask a couple of media guys. do we have a little west coast bias? do we have luck envy? we think it's luck out here. all of these other guys are just nice little players. that's the idea of the heisman. >> i know andrew, i've covered andrew. i thought he was the best player when he was a sophomore. but when i saw him as a sophomore, it was around him and realized what he does on the field for this stanford team. by the way, they haven't exactly played that football in the last two years. i just can't -- i think he's the best player. i would vote for him. maybe it's a little bit of who you know. but it's hard for me to judge what everyone else does based on what i hear what nfl people think about him. what i hear his own coach and

what i see him doing on the football field. slight bias, maybe, but you vote for what you know and you think for what you know. he does a ton of stuff. >> tim, you sort of touch on it, but i don't think i have a west coast bias as much as an nfl bias. so when you hear people talking about an nfl scout talking about andrew luck, i think that sort of clouds your mind. and you say, okay, this guy is better than robert griffin or this guy or that guy. he's the best quarterback out there and he's had a very good season. no doubt. he's had an outstanding season. i think that's where my bias comes from. i see a guy who has that skill set that's going to translate to the nfl. he is the best college football player. he deserves it. >> thanks for joining us. we'll hear from you a little bit la later on.

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xfinity sports sunday, nbc bay area 49ders hosting the rams. he would become the 49ers all time leading rusher. he did not score a touchdown, but michael crabtree sure did. crabtree catches it. that's a 52 yard strike. 49ers win 26-0. bok was at the stick and has more. >> the 49ers clinch their first division title on record-setting performances. >> guys are excited oobt it. they're happy about it. and, you know, they realize that there's more out there for us.

and, you know, they're already in there talking about that. they want to get everything that's out there. everything that's available. everything that could possibly come their way. >> the only loss for the 49ers is the defensive captain patrick willis left the game. he does not believe the injury to be serious, but he will know more on monday. >> guys in the nfl don't care. most of them are (expletive) off. there's a hand full of guys thatted talked about it at one time. so that's not as big of a deal as it is when you go back to your hometown, your college or do things in the community. it's just kind of how you've been introduced probably for the rest of your life. >> in 1970, it was the stanford indians who won the pac-8 title. it was the year the quarterback for college football and stanford's jim plunkett beat out

manning for the honor. while both plunkett and luck had individuals, how do the numbers compare? luck's numbers are better across the board and he will go down as the greatest quarterback there stanford foot fwal history. >> 1970 heisman winner jim plunkett joining me. >> you know, he's done a tremendous job in his stay at stanford. and, you know, i think, you know, although i've read what he's said about the pressure and it doesn't really bother him and he's that kind of a kid, that kind of a hang loose kind of guy. but i think a little bit gets to him on occasion. i know it did me when i was playing way back when. obviously he handles it very well. and it doesn't appear that, you know, he's looking ahead to any -- either game or award that may come his way. >> what is andrew luck facing

leading up to the heisman ceremony? >> well, you know, i think anticipation. i'm sure he's anxious to find out exactly how the voting has gone. and that will be saturday. the votes are in by tomorrow, monday at five:5:00 eastern tim. i think he's excited and i think he's hopeful, as well, as are his teammates. >> how does winning the heisman trophy change expectations in the nfl? >> i don't know, i guess it puts more pressure on you. you step on that field as a rookie and, i mean, certain expectations. and whether or not they're as real as they should be, people have them. and you try to live up to those sometimes a little too much. and it tends to put added pressure. i know pressure is self imposed. but, you know, that's just the way it is. >> no matter what you're dwoing to get pressure going into the national football league, especially if you have the heisman tag. how is he uniquely prepared for

it now and in the future? >> well, i think his attitude is tremendous. his personality really lends to be a quarterback in that he remains calm in both situations. he knows what he has to know. he knows his job. he's quite good at what he does. and i thif he's got that confidence, now matter how the sloeting goes. i don't think andrew luck lacks for any confidence in himself and what he can do on the football field. >> jim plunkett, thank you for joining us on xfinity sports sunday. >> well, thank you very much. >> and we continue along, tim joins us from the san jose mercury news. well, jim plunkett's career went from college to the pros. it wasn't a seemless tran sis for him. you say you've seen andrew luck grow up in college. what will his transition be like? how about his skill set? >> not only does he have the athletic skills, i think he does, that he can throw the ball

deep, he can throw to the middle. he's got a mind that the nfl guys will go crazy for. he has an offensive coordinator's mind. i think he could be an offensive coordinator right now. they give him the responsibility with three different plays. he's got to pick one of these three and you might even audible to a fourth. he set it is protection. he reads what the defense is doing. this guy sd ready to play in an nfl situation. this is a multiple, complex system that andrew luck hasn't just exceeded, he's excelled at. he's added to it. he changes from one run play to another run play, not necessarily calling a pass play. this is stuff that peyton manning does. that's the way they talk about him. that's the way that the stanford offense has done based on what he can do mentally at the line, that's very different than a rustle, let's say.

brian leaf who is a huge physical talent but hasn't been able to translate what they did in the college game to the nfl. they haven't been able to adapt to the mental part of it. luck is already there. he's ahead of almost any other college quarterback i can think of except for peyton manning. >> if you have that heisman trophy and many think that luck can get it. but if you look at a couple of guys that didn't win it, one was manning, one was leaf. one guy excels extraordinarily. but leaf couldn't do it sochlt what are some of the outside factors? is it where you go as a quarterback? >> i think that's it. maybe less for luck than others because i think you'll be able to adapt. he's got a bad offensive line. you'll be able to figure out how to play to get rid of the ball fast. some guys, they have a battle. they don't know what to do. they can't handle it and they're taking two or three years to figure it out. smith may have been one of those guys. you just drop him back, it's a

very different world for him. >> let's just take the heisman out of this. i know this show is about the heisman. he's the best quarterback in college football, whether he win it is heisman or not. that is the difference. that's what's going to make him a good nfl player. that's what's going to make him a great nfl player. it's whether or not he wins the heisman. it's going to be based on his competition. it's going to be what people view of baylor or alabama. i just think he's going to be a high quality player for everything else we're talking about, not just necessarily because he's the best heisman trophy candidate. >> all right, we're going to have that debate a little bit later on. we'll be joined by matt. tim, you do the same. college is one thing, the nfl, something else entirely. how recent heisman winners are buried on the big stage. plus, david shaw joins us from stanford next.

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raiders and dolphins and orlando mcclain. he was active despite his recent arrest. he connected. best with a 12 yard touchdown. dolphins at the half, it's reggie bush time. bush, a hundred yards rushing. raiders fall. skbl well, hugh jackson's bully was out bullied sunday in miami. >> back to the drawing board we go. i mean, we had, again, the lower. the same things that have beat us when we've lost beat us today. not being able to stop the run. not being able to run the ball. penalties. it's just the same thing. i take responsibility for it. i've got to fix it and we're going to keep working at it! further complicating matter,

richard seymore was rejected in the third quarter. when you're a rock of this team, you can't leave a game that way. in miami, for xfinity sports sunday, i'm kate longworth. >> but then, when saturday came and we finally got to the theater and sat down and the ceremony got going, my heart just took off. >> all right, here's a look at the last three heisman winning quarterbacks and their first year in the nfl. kam newton is having a rookie-type year. and tim teebow with a back up. he started three others with quarterback as the broncos. >> david shaw joining us here on xfinity sports sunday. david shaw also the pac-12 coach ocht year after an exciting year. coach, you have coached. andrew luck his entire college career. is how have you seen him mature off the field with his program?

>> yeah, off the field, he came in, came in relatively mature, as it was. but had to figure out what this whole college experience was going to be like. what was he going to major in, what was he truly interested in. how to be a true student athlete. he picked it up kind of early, but there's still that little bit of assureness at the very beginning. he got comfortable. i think to be a pitcher helped a just to give him an example of what it means to be a starting quarterback and how you have to carry yourself. to me, it was a great example to that. >> david, it was your first head coaching job. you've got a heisman candidate. how much did you feel play calling had to go in andrew luck's favor that you had to call plays to put up big numbers that would help him out when it came to heisman voting in the future. >> i'm not going to lie. there was that temptation for me throughout the year. there was that temptation for pat hamilton throughout the

year. the one guy that was consistent all the time was andrew. andrew, in his mind, would cheapen the award if he just tried to get a whole bunch of stats to try to win. he wanted to be the best, complete football player that he could be. once again, the game that we played against washington. he broke the school record for rushing yards in a game. and it was a late game. and during the day, all of these other quarterbacks threw for all of these yards and andrew doesn't throw for a lot of yards but we win the game convincingly. i didn't apologize to him. i said gosh, it was hard sitting around watching all of these quarterbacks and you came out and hand the ball off quite a bit. he says coach, don't worry about that stuff. i just played my best game. but he was talking about running the game and controlling the game. and deciding which run plays to run versus which looks. and he was so intune with that game that he got us in the right place so many times that he ended up that our offensive line and runningbacks had a great game. and in his mind, he said i just played a great game. >> last year, andrew luck could

have gone to the pros. could have bnl a number one pick overall. but, instead, he decides to come back to college and play at stanford university again. with all that goes around, how much distraction has the nfl been for you guy sns. >> >> not at all. not at all. none of the nfl stuff has been a distraction. number one, because it's not why he does what he does. he doesn't do things for the nfl. he did things to try to help this football team win. whatever adjustments he had to make. whatever ways and thing that is we had to improve upon or change, he did it for this football team. you know, the nfl is out there. it's waiting for him. it's not going anywhere. when he's ready for it, it will be ready for him. so for us, it has not been a distraction at all. to be quite honest, physically, and mechanically, he's been ready for the nfl for at least two years. thanks for joining us on xfinity sports sunday. >> thank you very much. >> and we continue here rejoined

by matt, csmbayarea.com. and, matt, when you're here in the bay area, you've seen some number one draft picks or quarterbacks. alex smith has been taken a long time. russel, it never happened. he was a bust. whablt andrew luck. as he makes that transition. why are we to think that he will have a smoother transition? >> well, i think it's because of the post style offense. he was coached by jim harbaugh. those guys are in the nfl. the transition is not going to be nearly as did i have kult for andrew luck because he's been doing the same things at stanford that he'll be asked to do in the nfl. now, do i think that he's guaranteed success? no, i don't because i think that a lot of it has to do with the circumstances. but if you look at andrew luck, he has a very good chance of being a very good player for a long time. but a lot of this is out of his hands, too. it's all about supporting cast and how the organization that he ends up with supports him. >> all right, matt, thanks for

the insight. we'll hear more in just a moment. and he's being considered by many to be a sure thing. but just how good will andrew luck be as a pro? we debate that next.

next week, join us as we look into youth sports and the madness that goes long with them from angry coaches to overbearing parents and how it can override kids playing games. that's next sunday following football night in america. time now, bank of the west play of the day, chevron challenge in thousand oaks california. tiger woods putting for the win. he bier days the 18th. 749 days, 26 official tournament since woods last won on november 15th, 2009.

that is our bank of the west play of the day. welcome xfinity sports sunday. tim, i'll start with you. compare andrew luck now to guys who are in the nfl. >> i'd say matt ryan is a pretty good low bar for him. i think he's going to be at least as good as matt ryan. pretty good quarterback. but that's the low bar. i think drew brees would be the next step. i think he could be as good as drew brees easily. and then peyton manning is maybe the top of that and then tom brady. i'd put those four guys. it's the leadership all of those guys have, he's got it. the arm strength are different va variables there. i think between brees and manning, that's where he's going to slot in. i think those four guys are in the terms of the brains and the physical attributes i saw him in there, i think he's very, very similar to all four of those guys. >> and when i look at last year's number one pick, newton, i don't think andrew luck is as physically talented as kam noon.

but i think where everybody sees that luck is above cam nuden is because he comes from this offense and he knows what he's doing. he knows the game of football. that was the question mark about cam nuden. that part of it is not even discussed with andrew luck. everybody knows he has a football mind. >> the fist guy to knock it was former nfl quarter back. he doesn't necessarily have -- he doesn't see him making the big nfl throw with a big nfl arm. did that get to andrew luck's head? >> no, what happened is production went down. there's only so much you can do with three very good tight ends. so he lost with two tight ends. you get a little limited. there you're not going to make it with a 265 pound tight end. andrew is not like that. he's not a guy where criticism is going to get in his head. he's dwoing to try to run the ball more if he gets criticism. >> i don't necessarily think that sims was off base on some

of the stuff he said. he talked about how the bar has been set so high. the expectations are so high, he almost can't help but fail. and that's where people do a disservice to andrew is that they expect so much of him. even if he is an all-pro quarterback, he still might not live it to some people's expectations. >> all right, thanks for joining us. 30 rock is next. have a good night, everybody.

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