Now comes the tough part, comparing across position. Newman is the best athlete, Henderson was probably the best all-around, and Suggs was just a pass rushing machine. How do you rate them?

Well, Kansas State led the nation in scoring defense, while Arizona State was pretty bad outside of Suggs. Is it fair to punish a guy because his teammates weren't any good? In a way, yes. Defensive players can only be judged based on the system they are playing in. Simply put, Suggs was the only difference maker the Sun Devils had. Meanwhile, Newman stood out among a bunch of stellar players. That's tough to do.

Maryland was 10th in scoring defense. So Henderson made a large impact as well on a great defensive team. And though he didn't return kicks, he was an impact player on special teams. It's a judgement call, but since I live in Maryland and watch Henderson every week, I'm going with him.

That's right, after all of this I'm chucking logic out. I'll include Henderson and Newman among our finalists of the BartCopSports Heisman. He'll join our top QB's (Banks, Dorsey, Plamer, Gesser) and top RB's (LJ, McGahee, Brown, Griffin).

In part three, I'll look at their superlatives and come up with my final ballot.