Matt L. Stephens

matthewstephens@coloradoan.com

Blind comparison between three quarterbacks. This should be fun.

Player A has completed 58.7 percent of his passes for 2,316 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Player B has completed 65.6 percent of his passes for 3,024 yards, 26 touchdowns and five interceptions

Player C has completed 71.1 percent of his passes for 2,547 yards, 17 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Two of these players are semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, given to college football's top quarterback; one was left off the list. Can you guess the odd man out?

Maybe it's A because his completion percentage wouldn't cut it as a high school quarterback. Or C, with a touchdown total ranking far behind the pack. Surely it's not B, who's one of five quarterbacks in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision to crack the 3,000-yard mark this season.

But it is B. Or as most know him, Garrett Grayson of CSU. The Rams senior, who's broken just about every Colorado State University passing record and is among the national leaders in yards (3,024, ranking fourth in the nation), touchdowns (26, fourth) and quarterback rating was snubbed from the O'Brien Award's 16 semifinals all because the majority of the more than 80 voters were too lazy to do any research.

Player A, by the way, is Marshall's Rakeem Cato; C is UCLA's Brett Hundley.

The 14 other names rounding out the semifinalists are J.T. Barrett (Ohio State), Trevone Boykin (TCU), Shane Carden (East Carolina), Connor Cook (Michigan State), Everett Golson (Notre Dame), Marcus Mariota (Oregon), Bryce Petty (Baylor), Blake Sims (Alabama), Dak Prescott (Mississippi State), Clint Trickett (West Virginia), Nick Marshall (Auburn), Jake Wallace (Kansas State), Bo Wallace (Mississippi) and Jameis Winston (Florida State).

That list consists of five players west of the Mississippi River and two west of the central time zone, both reigning from the Pacific 12 Conference. East Coast bias, much?

What does a guy have to do to get some national recognition? Playing late-night games at Boise State, Nevada and San Jose State doesn't help exposure, nor does a lack of highlights from the Rams' nationally televised games airing on ESPN. But the CSU media relations staff made every effort to make voters well-informed about what Grayson has been doing. No one listened.

Did voting begin too early? Was four straight games without an interception not impressive enough? Had voting begun Monday, making it five consecutive outings without a pick, could that have turned heads?

What's the answer?

CSU has one of the best quarterbacks and wide receivers (Rashard Higgins) in college football and apparently no one outside of the Mountain West's footprint and NFL scouts have any clue. Even without Higgins on Saturday in a 49-22 win over Hawaii, Grayson managed four touchdown passes and 278 yards, proving his numbers aren't inflated by a star target.

By the same logic that prevented Grayson from becoming an O'Brien semifinalist, Higgins' 1,280 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns — both of which rank No. 1 in the country — aren't good enough for him to be considered a contender for the Biletnikoff Award.

Would Grayson win the O'Brien Award ahead of guys like Prescott, Mariota and Winston, favorites for the Heisman Trophy? Don't be ridiculous.

Is he a better quarterback than a Cato, who can barely complete half of his passes in Conference USA, a Carden or a Cook? Absolutely. The only close-to-rational explanation for why the Thundering Herd's quarterback was given the nod is because his team is undefeated.

Forgive this whining — because that's exactly what I'm doing here — but you have a responsibility when voting. I don't take my All-American, all-conference, Lou Groza or any other award I vote for lightly. It takes a lot of time to research each player, what he's done and against whom. Checking off the names of top-25 quarterbacks with a token Group of Fiver thrown in is embarrassing.

Grayson got screwed.

Good day.

Follow sports columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.