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Heisman is all up for grabs

Selection of a winner this weekend may be one of the most intriguing ever.

By BRUCE LOWITT, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 12, 2002

The sightseeing will be delightful, the dining exceptional, the wait interminable, the reward quintessential.

Five young men will spend the weekend in New York City. And Saturday night, seated in the Yale Club at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan, they will find out who among them has won the Heisman Trophy, presented to college football's premier player.

The Downtown Athletic Club, which first awarded the trophy in 1935, announced its finalists Wednesday -- quarterbacks Brad Banks (Iowa), Ken Dorsey (Miami) and Carson Palmer (Southern Cal), and running backs Larry Johnson (Penn State) and Willis McGahee (Miami).

"There's somebody for everybody," ABC analyst Terry Bowden said. "If you like a surprise guy, you like Banks. If you like a great athlete, McGahee. The hot hand at the end, Palmer. Consistency, Dorsey. Everybody's got an opinion."

The presentation is a once-quiet affair that television has expanded into a one-hour ESPN telecast. How quiet? In 1956, the late Charlie Callahan, then-Notre Dame sports information director, called Paul Hornung out of class and into his office, thrust a telephone receiver into Hornung's hand and said, "Here, tell your mother you just won the Heisman Trophy."

None of this year's invitees can predict the outcome of the balloting. Unlike most seasons, neither can anyone else, which makes for great debate.

"Everybody (complains) about it, just like talk shows (complain) about the BCS," said ESPN's delightfully cranky analyst, Beano Cook. "This is the biggest award in sports. Look, a hundred years from now there'll be only two names people remember from 2002, George W. Bush and the winner of the Heisman Trophy -- and maybe not in that order."

Often as the season progresses, the Heisman winner distances himself from his competition. Ricky Williams (1998), Charlie Ward (1993) and Vinny Testaverde (1986) tripled the points of their closest challenger.

Then again, many seasons the balloting is close: Eric Crouch, Rex Grossman and Dorsey (2001); Chris Weinke and Josh Heupel (2000); Charles Woodson and Peyton Manning (1997); Gino Torretta, Marshall Faulk and Garrison Hearst (1992) ...

"I hope the voters have taken this seriously and are knowledgeable (about the candidates)," said ESPN's Chris Fowler, host of College GameDay. "But not everybody is, just like people vote for the president without seeing a debate or reading a newspaper, who only see the R or the D (Republican or Democrat.)"

This season's field is one of the most wide open. Until Wednesday's announcement, quarterbacks Jason Gesser of Washington State and Byron Leftwich of Marshall, and running back Chris Brown of Colorado were considered viable candidates.

The field would have been even wider if Michael Vick, Julius Peppers and other underclassmen had not entered the NFL Draft. And it is a far different field than it was in August. Remember Grossman, Chris Rix, Eli Manning, Onterrio Smith, Lee Suggs and Dave Ragone? All were touted as candidates during the preseason.

This appears to be among the Heisman's most closely contested races. Straw polls haven't projected a favorite.

"A year like this, we have suspense to sell," Fowler said. "The finalists who walk into that room are going to have sweaty palms."

Torretta, Miami's career passing leader until Dorsey passed him this season, said they've "all had great seasons. Maybe that'll add to the anxiety."

He had more than his share in 1992.

"NBC was controlling the (Heisman) broadcast that year and the network was showing the Patriots and Dolphins," he said. "We were sitting on the stage and the game went into overtime in the snow. I'm sure for us it was even more nerve-wracking than usual."

Grossman, Florida's quarterback who finished second in the 2001 voting, was on top of many Heisman-favorite lists before this season, "and when he didn't have a great start, it opened it up for everybody," said Lee Corso, another ESPN analyst. "Then the heir-apparent was supposed to be Dorsey. "It's amazing to me why Dorsey's not running away with it. The No. 1 quarterback on the No. 1 team in the nation -- big plays in every big game, stats as good as anybody's. ... But that's my opinion," Corso said.

It's not fellow ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit's opinion.

"I've been watching (McGahee) all year long," Herbstreit said. "It wasn't just the performance against Virginia Tech. He played dominating football every single time I watched him play."

Some voters feel that Dorsey and McGahee could cancel each other out, opening the door to Palmer. Not necessarily, Herbstreit said.

"Most games are regional (telecasts)," he said. "I don't know how many people voting saw Carson Palmer play two games. A lot of people don't have satellite dishes, and they don't want to stay up until 10:30 (p.m.) Eastern time to get a chance to see him. I think exposure for your team and yourself is huge. Watching highlights and reading stats, that takes you only so far."

For every winner, there are those who walk away empty-handed. Have you ever watched the Academy Award nominees who don't leap to their feet when a winner is announced?

"I was just happy, delighted I was being invited," said former Georgia Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton, the 1999 runner-up. "I'll tell you this: If somebody would tell me I could get invited to the Heisman presentation but that I wasn't going to win, I would go.

"The Heisman's an experience," added Hamilton, the Bucs' seventh-round draft pick in 2000, out with a knee injury. "The other winners are there and all. When they said 'Ron Dayne,' I congratulated him. Being second doesn't mean you were a terrible player or didn't do anything well. It just means that for this individual award, you got beat out."

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