B1G Star: Wisconsin RB Melvin Gordon

IOWA CITY - Melvin Gordon's Heisman Trophy campaign could get launched or snuffed before the Wisconsin running back even sees Labor Day.

Wisconsin faces Louisiana State in a high-profile showdown Aug. 30 in Houston. A big performance gives street credibility to Big Ten Badgers against the big bad SEC. It also could turn Gordon into a Heisman front-runner.

'If they key on me and I don't have a good game and the Heisman candidacy leaves and all that, I don't care,” Gordon said. 'If I don't have a good game, so be it. As long as we win, I'm OK.”

The game's result obviously carries more weight to his team than Gordon's statistics. But the junior running back from Kenosha, Wis., has a supporting cast pushing for his inclusion as a Heisman contender. Count second-year Coach Gary Andersen among them.

Andersen didn't recruit Gordon. In fact Andersen's first interaction with Gordon was in 2012 when the coach brought his Utah State squad to Madison. Gordon ran only twice, for a total of 18 yards, but he also was the Badgers' No. 3 running back. Gordon didn't have a breakout game until the 2012 Big Ten championship. He rushed for 216 yards on nine carries and immediately thrust himself into prominence.

Last year, Gordon shared time with James White and started just four games. But Gordon was among the nation's most electrifying running backs and garnered second-team all-Big Ten honors. That's led to grass roots Heisman rhetoric over the summer, and even Gordon himself has mentioned it.

'He's an elite performer,” Andersen said. 'That talk should be out there in my opinion. I don't have a vote for the Heisman, but I'm very excited about the opportunity for Melvin to compete at the highest level. The fact that Melvin brought it up is not a negative at all. We talk all the time about working to be the best, and he's striving to playing at the highest level.

'A little bit of selfishness is OK. You want to be the guy that makes the tackle, you want to be the guy who catches the touchdown pass. I'm OK with that, and Melvin has handled it really well. But we need to push Melvin, which we are, the sports information people are doing a nice job. But it comes down to how Melvin plays on the field.”

Gordon's statistics alone vault him into consideration. He reached 1,000 yards in 104 carries, the fewest of any player in Wisconsin history. He boasts more runs of 20-plus yards (24) than for negative yardage (19). His 16 career rushing touchdowns average 29.8 yards. He's lost only one fumble, and that was on a lateral.

Last year Gordon ranked 10th nationally with 1,609 rushing yards and led the country at 7.8 yards per attempt. He was the nation's only player with three runs exceeding 70 yards and ran for at least 140 yards in eight games. He's got explosive speed and enough size at 6-foot-1, 213 pounds, to absorb hits. Gordon's running style compares favorably with Kansas City Chiefs star Jamaal Charles.

'I think we run similar. We even look alike with the dreads and the same jersey number,” Gordon said. 'But he's just a little bit faster than I am.”

But before Gordon strikes a pose and delivers a weepy, mid-December speech in New York City, he's got plenty of room for improvement. That was the focus this off-season and continues to surface in training camp.

'Melvin had a little bit of a laundry list for what he wanted to get better at and I completely agreed,” Andersen said. 'The whole grasping of pre-snap awareness. What's out there on the defensive side of the football? That's going to help him. That's going to him in his runs, that's going to help him in his protections, it's going to help him catching the football, that's No. 1.

'No. 2, Melvin wants to be a very good pass protector. He's worked very hard at that, he's getting better at that. Melvin wants to be more involved in the throw game, and we want him to be more involved in the throw game. He's worked on that.”

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