| | | |
 Friday, December 13, 2002
Give this vote to Heupel
By Marc Connolly
BCSfootball.com
We know Josh Heupel has one Heisman vote. And it comes from the state that Chris Weinke should carry with ease.
|  | | Josh Heupel completed 24 of 44 passes for 220 yards and two TDs, but it was his option pitch that helped send the Sooners to the championship game. |
"I talk to Steve Spurrier quite often, and I pretty much know who he's going to vote for," said Oklahoma's second-year head coach Bob Stoops of his former boss.
So he's got that going for him, which is nice. But, other than that endorsement from the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner and the insightful essay by our own
Brent Musburger, finding Heisman voters who will admit to writing down the Oklahoma QB's name as the first one on their ballot is as tough as finding a Bush supporter in New York City.
Since my ballot must have gotten lost in the mail somewhere between that six-mile stretch of Manhattan chaos that separates ABC from the Downtown Athletic Club, this will have to serve as my official vote.
And I'm voting for Heupel.
Nothing against you, Chris Weinke. Plain and simple: If you don't return to Tallahassee this year, the Seminoles wouldn't have returned to a BCS bowl. In fact, Bobby Bowden and Co. could very well be prepping for some dot.com bowl that has nothing to do with a fruit or a plant had their Old-Man QB opted for the NFL. Speaking of age, anyone who had to even think twice about your qualifications due to your 28 years needs to have his or her ballot tossed.
You had one bad half all year, and that was followed by the type of quarterback brilliance in the second half against Miami that separates Heisman Trophy candidates from the seemingly hundreds of others that found their way onto some form of All-American team over the past few weeks. You deserve to be in Manhattan with your family this week and to revel in the limelight that a Heisman invite brings to the four or five best players in the nation. I just happen to think you should be the second-place finisher.
Weinke's numbers are superior. He threw for 4,167 yards and 33 TDs while completing 61.7 percent of his passes. Heupel tossed for 3,392 yards, 20 touchdown strikes and seven rushing TDs. That's a definitive advantage. Yet, it was in OU's late-season nail-biters that gave many a Sooner fan agita, when the JC product defined his greatness.
"I think a lot of times, being in tight games, people want to see that as opposed to when you're ahead by 40 points and building up your statistics," said Stoops. "I don't think there's any question that the tight games will help Josh."
It's not Weinke's fault that he plays for another FSU juggernaut that prevents such close affairs against the Oklahoma States and Texas Techs. Regardless of Oklahoma's record and ranking, it's hard to imagine the 'Noles not taking care of business in the first half against such middle-of-the-road programs. Florida State happens to have more talent and experience than the squad Stoops has on his hands. That's what makes Heupel's emergence so impressive.
While Mark Mangino's offensive arsenal has some very talented targets in Antwone Savage, Andre Woolfolk, Josh Norman and Curtis Fagan for Heupel to spread the ball around to, none of these athletes will ever be mistaken for a burner like Snoop Minnis. And the combination of his O-line and running back Quentin Griffin is certainly not one a coach would want on his side over a four-year starter like Travis Minor and the talented wall that protects Weinke.
"We got Josh Heupel and Frank Romero as the only two players on our offense that are listed on the All-Big XII team," rationalized Stoops. "So there's got to be a reason for it -- why we lead the conference in offense and scoring and as the No. 1 team in the country. And Josh Heupel is the reason."
Starting in the Kansas State game in Manhattan, every opponent felt it had the correct defense to stop him. After watching the lefty gunslinger pour it on Texas in a 63-14 shellacking in the Red River Shootout, K-State went with an over-aggressive package that featured safety and corner blitzes from all ends of Wagner Field. Despite the onslaught of purple into the OU backfield, a stoic Heupel picked the single-man coverage apart, going 29-for-37 (78.4 percent) for 374 yards and 2 TDs against what was the nation's top defensive unit.
A week later, Nebraska employed the same strategy, and got the same result. The kid from Aberdeen, S.D., was 20-of-34 for 300 yards and one touchdown against the feared Blackshirts in a battle of the top two teams in the land.
In both victories, his audibling display at the line was as impressive as anything that ever came bustling out of that awkward sidearm delivery. It was reminiscent of how Peyton Manning used to run Tennessee's offense, combined with the quick release of a Dan Marino that is necessary when trying to counter a safety blitz with a quick slant to a split end.
When defensive coordinators started calling off the dogs and switching to quasi-prevent schemes and zone coverages, Heupel struggled for the first time all season. Combined with several defensive lapses, Heupel and the Sooners found themselves emerged in squeakers against Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State to end the regular season slate. Every time, however, he pulled it together down the stretch to keep the team's undefeated mark and No. 1 ranking intact.
"In the last drive of the Oklahoma State (game) to seal the victory, he comes up with a third-and-10 and sticks the ball on a corner route in the receiver's face for the first down," said Stoops. "And then we run him two times for the next first down."
The last piece of the puzzle was against Kansas State last weekend in the Big XII Championship Game. The voters who can't look past the three interceptions on Heupel's stats sheet, including the one that Fagan dropped, missed a performance where all his talents were on display. He ran seven yards for a TD when the pocket collapsed in the third quarter, set up a 22-yard gain by Griffin on fourth-and-1 with a perfectly timed option pitch, and fired a 17-yard scoring rocket in stride to Woolfolk a play later.
As has been the case all year, Heupel was once again the difference in a game that had the glare of the nation upon it.
"More than anything, people will evaluate Josh on the so-called big games that he's been in all year," said Stoops. "He took a team that was ranked 20th in the country to No. 1."
That's good enough for me.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
| | | |
|
|
Josh Heupel does it on his own with this 7-yard touchdown run.