Jenni Carlson's Heisman ballot

1. RB Mark Ingram (Alabama): He moved to the top of my ballot around the middle of the season, and he never surrendered the position. Playing in the defensive-minded SEC, Ingram rushed 1,542 yards, capped by an impressive three-touchdown day against Florida. His big-time performance in that big-time game was the final validation that Ingram deserves the top spot.

2. QB Colt McCoy (Texas): He had a rough day in the Big 12 championship game — he threw for only 184 yards and three interceptions — and that makes it easy to forget how good he was the rest of the season. McCoy has been steadily spectacular, completing 70.5 percent of his pass attempts and leading the Longhorns to the national championship game.

3. DT Ndamakong Suh (Nebraska): He forced his way into the Heisman conversation earlier this season, then made quite the closing argument against Texas. Suh terrorized Colt McCoy. I'm a fan of the big fellow, but like individual talent, team success is important to me. That's why Suh is on my ballot but not at the top of it.

Who I didn't vote for:

RB Toby Gerhart (Stanford): The kid is a bowling ball on legs, and while I love his hard-nosed style, defense seems to be a foreign concept in the Pac-10. Rushing for 1,736 yards is impressive, but it wasn't quite enough to boost him into my top three.