For the second straight year, Doc's Sports has successfully predicted the winner of the Heisman Trophy. The prediction was made back in April by one of our handicapping experts (Max). It can be found on page 61 of our 2005 Doc's Football Sports Journal. This year Doc's printed more than 250,000 copies of the publication and sent them out to all 50 states and more than five different countries.

The Heisman vote was a landslide victory for USC RB Reggie Bush. The USC junior tailback won the highest percentage of first-place votes and the highest percentage of points (awarded on a 3-2-1 basis) in the 71-year history of the award. Texas quarterback Vince Young finished a distant second, and Bush's quarterback, 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart, finished an even more distant third.

Bush received 794 first-place votes of the 892 ballots cast, or 84.9 percent. His 2,541 points represented 91.7 percent of the maximum possible, and his 933-point margin over Young trailed only one other Heisman winner, fellow Trojan O.J. Simpson in 1968. Bush was named on 99 percent of the returned ballots (884 out of 892) -- the highest percentage in history.

For those of you that got in on the opening line in August, you would have netted a nice profit playing Reggie Bush. Bush opened at odds of 9/2, but those odds quickly fell once the Trojans took the field. The Trojan RB took the early lead but stumbled through the middle of the season with back-to-back lackluster performances. This allowed Young to get back into the race and even emerged ahead on some ballots. But Bush then quieted all doubts on Nov. 19, with a late night performance against Fresno State, in which he netted 513 total yards. This put the debate to rest for good and despite a 70-point output in his season finale, Vince Young did not have a prayer.

This marks the second-straight year that Doc's has predicted the Heisman Trophy winner. In 2004, we tabbed Matt Leinhart for our pick at 5-1 odds. Doc's made three future props prediction for the season and two of them have already collected. Ohio State won the Big Ten Conference and our one remaining prop is still active; as USC was selected in win the Rose Bowl. We placed that bet at 6-5 odds, and that is a good bet considering that the Trojans are 2.5 favorite to win this game.

Be sure to check the 2006 sports journals for more predictions, as we look to select the Heisman winner for the third consecutive year.

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