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© St. Petersburg Times, published August 1, 2002
HOOVER, Ala. -- The lectern generally is reserved for coaches, but Mississippi quarterback Eli Manning and Florida quarterback Rex Grossman garnered so much media attention that each got to take front stage Wednesday at SEC media days.
The hot topic? The Heisman Trophy.
Grossman is the 2001 Heisman runner-up and Manning has been mentioned as a potential candidate. But both said they'll leave the hype up to others.
"It gets a little pathetic when you have billboards and a campaign," Grossman said. "It gets away from football. It's embarrassing, I guess. You're a focal point and people are looking at you. It's a team game and you depend on your team a thousand times more than a billboard to get you the Heisman."
Manning made news several weeks ago when his father, Archie Manning, told Ole Miss officials not to mount a massive public relations campaign for his son.
"He talked to me before and we both agreed there's no point in putting up a campaign right now for the Heisman," said Manning, who set a school single-season record with 2,948 passing yards last season. "It's something that you get awarded for your play on the field, not on how many posters you're on or how many books you are on as a Heisman candidate. ... If you go through the season and play hard every game and at the end of the season if they want to include you in it, that's great."
ABOUT THAT SCHEDULE ... : When former Furman coach Bobby Johnson scheduled a game against Vanderbilt three years ago, he had no idea he would be the leading the Commodores instead.
But the 51-year-old coach said he never tried to get Furman to cancel the game, although the Division I-AA Paladins might be favored.
"Three years ago when we scheduled that game, I was feeling pretty good about it," he said.
Johnson gracefully handled numerous questions about why he chose to leave Furman for arguably the worst team in the SEC. When asked if that issue was his most asked question, Johnson said it was the second-most asked.
"The most asked question is, 'Do you know you look like Steve Martin?' " said Johnson, who resembles the actor-comedian. "I was stopped in San Francisco one time by a Japanese tour bus and they thought I was him. They all jumped out and kept saying, 'Hollywood, Hollywood.' I got my picture taken with them and signed a few autographs."