At MAC Media Day, Jordan Lynch was mistaken for his head coach, Rod Carey, by a journalist. If his school has their way, their key player will become a much more recognizable figure.
Although others were in the spotlight last season, Lynch, the little known quarterback out of Northern Illinois, might have been the star 2012. As a junior, the 6’0″, 216 lb. dual-threat quarterback led the Huskies to an Orange Bowl berth.
Perhaps more so than any other player in the country, the Huskies firmly relied on their standout quarterback. Lynch threw for 3,138 yards and ran for another 1,815 yards, breaking the NCAA rushing record for a quarterback and becoming the first 3,000 yard passer and 1,500 yard rusher. Now, Northern Illinois is building a Heisman campaign for the superstar.
The small MAC school has launched a website at jordanlynchfor6.com along with similarly named social media pages and doing just about everything else it can to promote its quarterback including providing “swag” items such as lunch boxes.
Lynch is unlikely to actually win the Heisman as his stellar 2012 campaign only allowed him to finish in seventh place. Nevertheless, the star signal caller will certainly be the small school player worth watching as we enter 2013, and his school will no doubt benefit from publicity that is otherwise difficult to come by.
Plus, with the continued commercialization of college football and controversy surrounding some of its biggest stars, an underdog like the small-school star Lynch could be exactly what the game needs.
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