The most interesting aspect of the Heisman Trophy is always the players it excludes as a matter of course. With the field of favorites rapidly narrowing down the stretch, Alternate Heisman Reality looks at some of the more deserving candidates off the beaten path. Today: Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham.

Generic Profile. Former five-star, all-world recruit turned two-time All-Big Ten pick at a high profile powerhouse and likely first-rounder in next April's draft.

By the Numbers. Graham leads the nation with an absurd 25 tackles for loss, including 9.5 sacks, after leading the Big Ten with 20 TFLs as a junior in 2008. In the Wolverines' biggest games this year, he notched two tackles behind the line against Notre Dame; two at Michigan State; three-and-a-half at Iowa; three-and-a-half against Penn State; and four apiece against both Wisconsin and Ohio State, dominating his half of the line of scrimmage on a weekly basis despite constant double teams.

All of Graham's sacks came in the last eight games, with multi-sack games against Iowa, Delaware State and Wisconsin.

Intangibles Ho! He kept playing hard and steadily increased his production as the season wore on, even as the chances of making anything remotely worthwhile out of the season More impressively, Graham set weekly records in the "plus" category of MGoBlog's weekly play-by-play reviews of the Wolverine defense, which graded every excruciating snap of every game all year and usually amounted to "Brandon Graham is the only beacon of hope for mankind in an otherwise cruel and doomed world." Short of opposing Big Ten coaches taking out an ad for the guy in the Chicago Tribune, that's as powerful an endorsement as a defensive end can earn in my book.

Three strikes. Graham a) Plays an obscure position on b) A terrible overall defense on c) A terrible overall team that finished in a tie for last place in the conference with seven straight losses in league games.

The biggest indictment against Graham -- and it's not clear that there's any more he could have done about this -- is that he didn't elevate the rest of the team, or even the teammates in his immediate vicinity: Michigan's front seven was as porous as any area of the team, finishing next-to-last in the Big Ten against the run and in sacks as a team.

Might Enter the Real Discussion If ... Michigan prints out Cook's angsty film reviews and mails them to Heisman voters, along with a healthy bribe and naming rights to Graham's first-born child. If a full-scale campaign of that order got him a single first-place vote, it would count as a triumph.

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Previously on Alternate Heisman Reality: Josh Nesbitt.