Penn State Fans Have Completely Left Planet Earth, Are Claiming Tight End Tyler Warren Deserves An Invite To The Heisman Trophy Ceremony

DISCLAIMER: Martin Scorcese once said about making films, "One for them, one for me". This is a blog for me. And for Bowling Green.

Sometimes at Barstool you have to use your platform to fight a personal battle for your small school alma mater. When you go to a school like Bowling Green, you don't get many opportunities for relevancy. When you do find yourself with any glimpse of it, you have to fight for it. Or else you'll get bullied out of what you deserve by a bigger, more powerful school. 

Bowling Green's current glimpse of relevancy is TE Harold Fannin Jr., who is having a historic season by all measures. And unfortunately, when fighting for relevancy, you sometimes have to tear down another innocent player in the process. In this case, that player is TE Tyler Warren of Penn State University (i.e. the university from the biggest, non-christianity related pedophile cover-up scandal the world has ever seen). I'm sorry Tyler Warren. But there's a Bowling Green Falcon football player I need to go to bat for. 

The highly disturbing On3 graphic embedded at the top of this page was irresponsibly tweeted out by Barstool Sports own Connor Griffin. This tweet came across my desk today as I was hate searching Tyler Warren's name. I've been hearing people use the words 'Tyler', 'Warren', and 'Heisman', in conjunction far more often than anyone ever should (i.e. more than 0 times). Tyler Warren is the best TE on a nationally relevant college football program this season, and because of that, people have completely lost their god damn motherfucking minds and spun off the globe entirely, as they now believe Tyler Warren deserves an invite to the Heisman Trophy Ceremony. 

It would be one thing if Tyler Warren was the best tight end in the country. Or if he was even close to it. But by any and all conceivable metrics you can find, he's simply not. Bowling Green has the best TE in the nation in Harold Fannin Jr. If any TE other than Harold were to get an invite to the Heisman Trophy ceremony, it would be spitting in the face of the award, and taking a big ol' wet stinky dump on the sport of college football as a whole. 

Let's take a look at the stats. We'll start with receiving. 

Of course, they're not close. Warren is a distant 362 yards shy of Fannin in receiving yards. Which is nothing to be ashamed of, considering Harold Fannin is 2nd in the nation in total receiving among all players. Not just TE's. In fact, he is the only player in college football who's a semifinalist for both the Mackey (top TE) and the Biletnikoff (top receiver) awards. Additionally, he's #1 in YAC (646), tied for #1 in broken tackles (25), and has the most 100+ receiving yard games (6) among all receivers. 

And we'll get to this point now, because it's the main argument that comes from people with Tyler Warren-derangement syndrome. "Harold Fannin is playing against weaker competition". Sure. Overall, I will concede that's true. But who's numbers against "real opponents" are really more impressive? 

Against both Penn State & Texas A&M, who very well might both be playoff teams primarily because of their defense, Harold Fannin Jr. went for 137 YDS, 1 TD and 145 YDS, 1 TD respectively. 

Conversely, 43% of Tyler Warren's receiving yards came in 2 games against USC & Purdue (woof). Add in when Penn State played Bowling Green (MAC school), that's 61% of Tyler Warren's receiving yards coming in 3 games against weaker defenses. Not that he didn't make some damn impressive plays while doing so.

But if you take away those games, in the 7 games against "top defensive competition", Tyler Warren is averaging 44.4 yards receiving.

Tyler Warren: 3 massive games against 2 putrid B1G, and 1 MAC defense. The rest of them average. All while having a top 5 team in the nation on your side. All vs a schedule in which Penn State has significantly outmanned every opponent aside from Ohio State (where Penn State got down to the goal line with a chance to win and Tyler Warren was nowhere to be found).

Harold Fannin Jr.: 6 games with 130+ yards. 2 of which came against college football playoff caliber defense. All while playing for a MAC school. 

If you're going to make the "strength of schedule" argument… if you want to talk about who's performing against better teams, or who's job has a higher level of difficulty. There's a great argument to be made that Harold Fannin Jr. has had a tougher road. I personally believe he has.

Now let's talk blocking. I've seen many Penn State fans say that Harold Fannin is a glorified receiver, but Tyler Warren is a real tight end. Ok then. Let's take a look at how PFF grades the two TE's in the blocking category.

On the far right hand of that graphic are PFF's blocking grades. Tyler Warren has a slight nod in pass blocking. But let's be honest, on pass plays, both players are for the most part receivers. And even when they're not, their grades are similar. What really matters for them is run blocking. Harold Fannin Jr. comes in at a 75.3, to Tyler Warren's 49.7.

Harold Fannin Jr.'s run blocking grades dwarf not only Tyler Warren's, but all of the Mackey Award semifinalists.

And because I'm a fair guy, I'll even thrown in rushing the football. That's not traditionally something a TE does, but one of Tyler Warren's number one selling points is that he occasionally runs the ball form the wildcat position. 

You win this round Tyler Warren. Putting up 47 yards on Ohio State's defense on only 3 attempts is highly impressive. I'm a little less impressed with your gratuitous punch-in TD's against the likes of Washington & Illinois.

…and busting a big one against Purdue who opted out of playing defense entirely.

I'm not sure I'm ready to call you an elite rushing threat. But that's more than Harold Fannin Jr. has. You got him there.

Except you both do have the same YPC average… and Harold Fannin Jr.'s TD run, albeit against Akron, came on a 4th down with the game on the line…

…and let's be real. Do you think Harold Fannin wouldn't be putting up the same numbers if Bowling Green let him take a few snaps from shotgun? Is having Tyler Warren at wildcat really this huge weapon? Or is he just getting the opportunities? Feels like Penn State probably has a few running backs who couldn't gotten the job done equally as well)

I suppose Tyler Warren is somewhat of a passing threat as well. He did complete a wide open screen for a TD against Kent State this year.

If you want to throw that into your argument too, then fine. But you guys are damn lucky our receiver didn't catch the ball Harold Fannin Jr. dropped right in his hands 40 yards down field against you earlier in the year.

I'm sorry Tyler Warren. I'm sorry Penn State fans. But if Harold Fannin Jr. and Tyler Warren switched teams, few people would even know Tyler Warren's name, and Harold Fannin Jr. would legitimately be invited to the Heisman ceremony. Not just undeservedly argued for it on the internet. 

Even thought Harold Fannin Jr. is on Bowling Green. Even though he was a 0 star linebacker recruit out of high school. He's the player deserving of an invite. According to PFF, who we all know is never wrong, Fannin is the highest rated player in all of college football. His 96.8 offensive player rating edges #2 highest rated Ashton Jeanty's 95.1. And demolishes Tyler Warren's 89.0. 

If Fannin had just slightly better stats than Tyler Warren against a weaker schedule, then I'd concede he's the one deserving of an invite. But it's not even close. Tyler Warren is having a great season. Harold Fannin's is historic. He only needs 183 more yards, which he will get, and he will break the all-time TE receiving record.

He leads TE's in quite literally every category. The strength of scheudle argument doesn't even hold up.

Inviting Tyler Warren to the Heisman Ceremony of Harold Fannin Jr. would be the definition of awarding someone for being the best player on a good team, while there's a much better player who just so happens to play on a weaker team. That's exactly the type of stuff the Heisman Trophy should be moving away from. Not embracing.

It was never Tyler Warren. It was always Harold Fannin. Harold Fannin deserves to win the Mackey Award for best TE in the nation. And most importantly, I really do not want to have to burn down the Heisman House.