Cutting through the SDCCU Stadium fog late Saturday night might have been easier than trying to chainsaw through the Heisman Trophy's anti-West Coast, pro-Power 5 bias.
Rashaad Penny doesn't just deserve to be in the stiff-arming, bronze-guy conversation, he needs to be flirting with the stiff-arming, bronze-guy mountain top.
The Swiss Army Knife of a running back who skittered and shouldered past Marshall Faulk for a school record 429 all-purpose yards in 42-23 win over Nevada, reinforced versatility that is unmatched. Quite simply, without a drip of hyperbole: It was one of the most impressive individual performances in college football history.
Yet, West Coast.
Yet, Group of Five.
Yet, as Aztecs fans cringe about Gino Torretta somehow leap-frogging Faulk in 1992, San Diego State.
"If anybody was still awake back East, they ought to watch and find out he's one of the best five players in the country," Aztecs coach Rocky Long said.
If Penny's not, college football should be embarrassed.
How do you want to slice it? How would you like to dice it? Start with raw numbers: He's the No. 1 rusher in the country, with 101 yards more than second-place Bryce Love of Stanford. He's No. 1 in all-purpose yards, with his 223.8 per game almost 36 more than the next guy — an enormous gap 11 games into the season.
Against Nevada, he scored on a 100-yard kickoff to give him seven for his career and a tie for the most in FBS history. He buried the Wolfpack under 222 rushing yards at a 9.2 yards-per-carry clip.
And most astoundingly, the senior returned the first punt of his career 70 yards for a touchdown. Some context: Only nine players in the country have more punt-return scores this season, so he joined the Top 10 the first time he touched the ball.
Yet, even Sunday morning, crickets.
The discussion was whether the behavior of Oklahoma quarterback front-runner Baker Mayfield matters. (It does.) It was whether Bryce Love or Saquon Barkley did more to wrestle into that second spot. One of the few to seemingly notice was Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, who tweeted that he moved Penny up to No. 2 on his ballot behind Mayfield.
Coming into the weekend, ESPN's list of Heisman contenders only mentioned Penny in its ninth and final spot of those receiving votes — a single fifth-place nod among its panel of nine.
If Long lacks some confidence, can you blame him?
The exchange during his postgame press conference hinted at the frustration of a program that remembers the Faulk fiasco and remains stung from D.J. Pumphrey missing out on a New York trip last season.
"Now we're at the end of the season, so we thought it was a real good idea to give him a chance to prove to everybody he's also a pretty good punt returner and maybe some of those guys back East would actually realize it's a real good football player out here on the West Coast," Long said. "I don't plan on them doing that, but I sure wish they would."
Reporter: Kind of hard to ignore, this one?
"Well, they ignored one last year, too," he said. "... They are not going to give him the credit he deserves."
Reporter: Don't you think that this is one of those performances ... they have to?
"Let's hope so," he said. "I'll be positive tonight. Let's hope so. I'll try not to be realistic. I'll be positive."
All the bile that's bubbling up deserves to bubble up — just as much as Penny deserves that kind of emotional sport.
What he's doing is singular. He's setting NCAA records. He's passing guys like Faulk. He's scored in four different ways, joining just TCU's KaVontae Turpin with touchdowns on a rush, pass reception, kick return and punt return.
Before you counter with Nevada being a two-win team, a question: They'll count all those stats for Mayfield, Barkley and Lamar Jackson against teams with losing records from this weekend, too, right?
And before you counter about Kansas, Nebraska and Syracuse playing in the Big 12, Big Ten and ACC, another question: If you've truly watched Penny, do you honestly doubt he couldn't gash those defenses, too?
Toss in the fact that he's running behind the youngest line, by far, of any of the other contenders and what he's doing becomes magnified.
"I think these guys and the coaches and this staff, everybody that believes in me, just led me to do this," said Penny, in full aw-shucks style.
Mayfield grabs his crotch against Kansas. Penny credits his linemen. Mayfield curses a blue streak that would make Conor McGregor blush. Penny thanks his quarterback.
You say that stuff doesn't matter? Let's refer to the first sentence of the Heisman Trophy mission statement: "The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity."
That's not to bury Mayfield for a few moments of emotion in an emotional game, for behavior of which — even with a likely PR nudge or three from the university — he apologized.
It's more to say that Penny is doing what he's doing without any of that baggage that conflicts ballot-scribblers.
And oh, yeah. Penny had a 70-yard touchdown run called back.
"He's got that 'it' factor," Aztecs quarterback Christian Chapman said. "You know, you see him do it week-in, week-out, and then he just continues to do it. You're just like, wow."
Heisman votes need to say wow, too.
