White Lays Claim To Heisman

I mentioned this a while ago, but I knew Jason White was not going to get enough Heisman Trophy consideration this year. White had the audacity to have a terrible post-season last year alienating a number of voters who felt they were duped. White's stock fell so far that the Oklahoma quarterback wasn't even a pre-season first team All-American. A returning Heisman winner isn't a first team All-American? Please.

All the hype in 2004 had been given the Southern Cal signal caller Matt Leinart. Leinart had a fine year in 2003, but came up short in stats and the Heisman vote. However, Leinhart led the Trojans to a portion of the national championship last season, something White was unable to do, thus Leinart was perceived as both the nation's best quarterback and leading Heisman candidate heading into this year.

As the season has progressed, I have kept waiting to see Leinart have a Heisman-like afternoon. It still hasn't happened. Oh, he's been good. Sometimes very good. He just hasn't been the best player in the nation. Yet, the game's talking heads continue to spout off about Leinart, while completely ignoring White. Today, I took a look at the numbers and it only affirms my opinion. White is getting overlooked.

Leinart is 127 of 217 for 1,642 yards. USC's quarterback has thrown 17 touchdowns and has three interceptions. Pretty good numbers. White is 126 of 196 for 1,617 yards. He has thrown 17 TD's and only three picks. The difference between these two is?

Leinart has one more completion and thrown for twenty-five more yards. White counters with a better completion percentage. Both have the same number of touchdown tosses and interceptions. Both have led their teams to undefeated seasons. That's not much difference, yet Leinart is drawing all the raves.

Some will argue that White has a fellow Heisman Trophy candidate in his backfield, freshman RB Adrian Peterson. While I admit to being a co-chairman of the Peterson for Heisman campaign, for the majority of the year all I heard was how USC's Reggie Bush was a leading Heisman candidate.

At worst, Bush has been alternately called the best, most versatile, most exciting player in the land. So, that "White has Peterson to take the pressure off him" line doesn't hold much water. Besides, White somehow managed to be the best college football player in 2003 while Peterson was in high school.

In the latest ESPN.com Heisman tracking poll, White's name doesn't appear until after seven others. Worse, fellow quarterbacks Leinart, Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Orton, Jason Campbell and Alex Smith all came before the defending Heisman winner. At least, White's stock was climbing. The question is why did his stock drop so low to begin with?

The answer is simple. The voters are mad about White's collapse in the last two games of '03. So, as long as 'SC wins and Peterson piles up yardage at a record pace, it will be easy for the fickle Heisman voters to give White the cold shoulder. However, I have bad news for the voters. Jason White is a Heisman candidate. At this point in the season, he's also the best quarterback in the country. The voters really should be happy about this. It looks like White didn't dupe them after all.