Some people thought it was a refreshing break from the status quo.

Some people thought I should lose my vote.

I gave Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams my first-place vote for the Heisman Trophy, and I stand alone.

The Heisman top 10 pic.twitter.com/sHebenO71m — Paul Myerberg (@PaulMyerberg) December 9, 2018

I wasn’t planning on announcing my vote publicly, until I saw that I was the only one who gave Williams a first-place vote. At that point, I figured it was necessary to own up to it.

I was the one who voted for Quinnen Williams. I thought he was the best player I saw all year. — Creg Stephenson (@CregStephenson) December 9, 2018

Most every one of the other 900-odd Heisman voters gave the nod to Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray or Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, both quarterbacks. I had Murray second and Tagovailoa third.

A screenshot of Creg Stephenson's 2018 Heisman Trophy vote.

My editors thought I should give an even more complete explanation, so here goes ...

The Heisman criteria is pretty nebulous. Voters are charged simply to select “the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. The winners of the trophy epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work.”

Williams certainly qualifies in that regard.

Here’s why I voted for him:

Williams was a wrecking ball all year long, for Alabama’s first game to its last. He had 66 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and eight sacks, which are incredible numbers for a defensive tackle.

Williams dominated in Alabama’s four most-important games of the year. Against LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn and Georgia, Williams totaled 27 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks.

He was especially impressive against LSU (10 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks) and Georgia (8 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack), arguably Alabama’s two signature wins of the season. (He did most of his damage against Georgia in the second half, when the Alabama defense took over the game).

For what it’s worth, the guys at Pro Football Focus, whose work I really respect, made Williams — not Tagovailoa — their overall SEC Player of the Year. And Williams won the Outland Trophy as the outstanding interior lineman in the country (I didn’t have a vote for that, but would have given it to Williams, obviously).

So why didn’t I vote for Tagovailoa or Murray, as most of my colleagues did?

I was concerned that Tagovailoa didn’t finish (and I don’t mean the numerous games where he sat most of the second half because Alabama was up by so many points). He played poorly against Georgia, Alabama’s most important game of the year (he also wasn’t especially good against Mississippi State, another extremely crucial game).

Yes, I realize Tagovailoa was playing hurt much of the year. But I have always felt durability is part of the equation when evaluating performance.

With Murray, it simply came down to the fact that I was concerned that some of the defenses he was facing were allowing him to inflate his numbers. I was very impressed that he didn’t have a bad game all year (and that’s why I had him second), but I thought the competition level lowered the bar a bit.

So I gave my vote to Quinnen Williams, who dominated a series of offensive linemen who will one day be early-round NFL draft picks. And who was the best college football player I saw in 2018.

My vote wasn’t a protest. I find it distasteful that only quarterbacks and (occasionally) running backs ever win the Heisman, but I’ve voted for quarterbacks in the past and will probably do so again.

My vote wasn’t a publicity stunt. I honestly thought more people would feel exactly the way I did (for the record, there were four people who voted Williams second and 16 who voted him third, so there’s that).

But I was the only one, and that’s OK. I still think Quinnen Williams was the Outstanding College Football Player in the United States in 2018, and I’d vote for him again.