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Who replaces Jameis Winston as college football’s biggest villain?

By Logan Shaw

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After many months of watching and critiquing the Heisman quarterback’s every move, Jameis Winston is now no longer a college quarterback. What do we do now? 

Over the past couple of  years, the college football world has relentlessly criticized and disapproved Winston’s every move. There have been many college athletes who have been unanimously disliked for various reasons, but was Winston the most unanimous?

Sure, athletes like Tim Tebow weren’t liked by some, but even he was well liked outside Gainesville. Johnny Manziel had his critics, maybe even more so now that he’s in the NFL, sort of, but even he had some supporters outside of Aggie Land.

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What makes Winston so easy to dislike? Obviously, I can name a few things, but what drives him to such a high national dislike, more so than most athletes in college football history?

If you disregard his antics and history with the law, which a lot of student athletes have, why do we as a college football world hate Winston so much? It’s simple. He’s a villain.

Over the past two years, Winston proved time and time again that he was better than you, and he knew it. Your team, hero, would have his Seminoles by the neck, and he would just slip away to throw a couple of touchdown passes in the final minutes of the game, taking your pride and riding off with it into the sunset.

Somehow, someway, Winston always came back. He was like the joker in Batman. He always managed to escape. However, as we all know, out of all the teams that Winston faced, his Achilles heel was Oregon. The college football world laughed and cried, as his Seminoles were dismantled in the first ever FBS playoff game.

Alas, our villain was defeated, and all was well in the college football world. So, what do we do now?

Jan 13, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones smiles during a press conference at Renaissance Dallas Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Well, we as a relentlessly critical college football world always desire to hate someone, justly or not. We either hate an individual student-athlete, or we, as a nation, hate a singular team.

After Jameis’ Seminoles were romped in Pasadena, college football fans got the closure they had looked for since the fall of 2013. However, like a shark in bloody waters, we began to look for a new prey. We quickly found our prey in Cardale Jones.

Cardale Jones led his Buckeyes to their first National Championship victory since Tressel’s Buckeyes won in 2002. Along the way, Cardale earned a few hundred thousand haters after his famous tweet.

"“Why should we have to come to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come here to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”"

This tweet was sent back in 2012, and it again resurfaced when Cardale, who, before the season’s start, was a third string quarterback. became the starting quarterback of the Buckeyes, once J.T. Barrett was injured. Cardale started and won the B1G Championship game, 59-0. Sorry, Wisconsin fans.

For the record, Cardale was interviewed shortly after the National Championship game on the Dan Patrick Show, and had this to say about his tweet:

"“I never really felt that way about school. That tweet happened at a dumb point.”"

In his defense, to my knowledge, Cardale also went on to say that he sent that particular tweet after getting a lower grade on an exam than he had hoped for. I believe he got a B or C. So, he’s not just some punk, spoiled student-athlete.

Also, this past January, Cardale was nice enough to visit a local children’s hospital in Columbia, where he played video games with the kids. Cute story, right?

Cardale went on to defeat the kid, 98-35 in NCAA Football 14. Reports from sbnation, said the kids were enjoying playing him, and reports were that he beat the kid, 91-35, using the Buckeyes of course.

Cardale, being the admirable man that he is, defended the reports with this tweet:

Ruthless.

In that game, Cardale had 395 passing yards, 209 rushing yards, and scored seven touchdowns using himself.

Honestly, I’m not a Cardale hater. He’s an expressive guy. He’s not Winston. He may not even be a villain, south of Ann Arbor. However, he’s a big personality guy, and he could be the next hated athlete.

Well, if it’s not Cardale, who can we as a college football world hate on? Well, normally, when we can’t pick a specific student-athlete to nationally dislike, we choose a team. Sorry, Alabama. We may have to substitute you in this year.

Last year, it was both Jameis and Florida State. It was a total double whammy for Tallahassee. I’m sure as the season progress, we will choose our next victim of national discrimination.

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