Mike Francesa is like a lot of people who watch college football in that he thought LSU’s Leonard Fournette was going to win the Heisman Trophy. Well, kind of. You see, if you ask Francesa, he will deny that Fournette was his Heisman choice to hell and back for some reason.
This is something we learned thanks to @RNs_Funhouse. On the Oct. 19, 2015 edition of his show, Francesa had this to say about Fournette’s Heisman odds when Gary in White Plains asked for his thoughts:
“I think most likely, Fournette will win the Heisman, yes. I do not…I think he absolutely will win it over a spread quarterback, I think the spread quarterback’s gonna have a lot of trouble getting votes.”
That’s a perfectly reasonable take. By that point in the year, Fournette was the clear favorite to win the award thanks to six straight games with at least 158 rushing yards and a touchdown. Over the next three weeks, Fournette would shred one more opponent before hitting a wall in the form of the Alabama and Arkansas defenses, which is perfectly fine seeing as how the pace he was on was probably unsustainable.
Fournette has fallen out of the top spot because of those two performances, so Gary in White Plains decided to call Francesa back and call him out for his prediction on the Nov. 20, 2015 show. Here’s what Francesa had to tell Gary:
“I never said I was leaning towards Fournette. I said Fournette would have to play great at Alabama, but right now, he had been named candidate. I never said I liked Fournette, I didn’t say I liked anybody. I said it’s a wide open year. I said Fournette’s candidacy is gonna be based on the Alabama game. If he doesn’t play well, it’s gonna cost him, and he played terribly.”
So Francesa is lying in two ways here. First, he lied when he said he didn’t like anybody, because a month prior he said he thought Fournette would win the Heisman. Second, he lied when he said the thing that will make or break Fournette’s candidacy was the Alabama game, because he didn’t even mention the Crimson Tide.
It’s perfectly fine to admit your Heisman prediction in October was wrong because a lot of things change over the course of the college football season. Heck, Fournette could still end up winning the trophy, and if he does, we’re willing to bet that Francesa will brag about calling the winner in October.
(via BroBible)
