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Handling The Hype As A Heisman Winner

AP photo

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, center, leads his team through stretching exercises during their practice for the Capital One Bowl college football practice against Michigan in Orlando.

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By ANDY STAPLES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 31, 2007

Updated: 12/30/2007 10:34 pm

ORLANDO - Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith said this on Jan. 3 when asked whether the Heisman Trophy whirlwind that had sucked him in for nearly a month would affect his preparation for Florida in the national title game.

"It hasn't affected my preparation for the game," Smith said.

Five days later, Smith played the worst game of his life. He threw for 35 yards and led his team to a measly 82 yards of offense in a 41-14 loss.

Smith isn't the only Heisman-winning quarterback to lay an egg in a bowl game weeks after claiming the trophy. That club includes Miami's Vinny Testaverde (1986) and Gino Torretta (1992), Nebraska's Eric Crouch (2001) and Oklahoma's Jason White (2003).

Will Florida's Tim Tebow join them when the Gators face Michigan in the Capital One Bowl on Tuesday? History suggests it's a 50/50 proposition.

Maybe because the aforementioned post-Heisman flops came in high-profile games, a prevailing notion has formed that quarterbacks who win the Heisman are doomed to fail in their next game. That's true only about half the time. Ask Florida's Danny Wuerffel (1996) or Southern California's Carson Palmer (2002) and Matt Leinart (2004) how they fared in their bowl game after they claimed the stiff-arming trophy. They would only smile.

So how does a Heisman-winning quarterback ensure he joins the second group instead of the first? He asks for advice. Tebow spoke to Wuerffel, who threw for 306 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-20 demolition of Florida State in the 1997 Sugar Bowl to help the Gators claim their first national title. According to Tebow, Wuerffel's post-Heisman advice didn't differ much from the wisdom he dispensed prior to the Dec. 8 announcement to help Tebow deal with the disappointment if he didn't win the trophy.

"A lot of people will say, 'How does winning the Heisman change you' or 'How are you going to have to change to adapt to it?' You don't change. Plain and simple," Tebow said. "You don't change. You're the same person. ... Maybe other peoples perception is different about you, but your perception about you and how you do things isn't different at all."

Seeking the advice of a previous winner also worked for Leinart. In 2004, he had the luxury of having the 2003 winner (White) in New York as a fellow finalist.

"He just said my life is going to change and really didn't know what to tell me, just be ready for the next couple weeks and the next month because it gets real kind of crazy and hectic," Leinart said days before he threw for 332 yards to help the Trojans to a 55-19 Orange Bowl win against White's Sooners. "He was right. You know, there's a lot more people coming around, a lot more attention."

Almost a year earlier, White sat in a news conference at the Superdome in New Orleans discussing how his team's Sugar Bowl loss to LSU with the national title on the line had diminished his enjoyment of his Heisman win. In that game, White had thrown an interception that was returned for a touchdown.

"Dampens the Heisman win quite a bit," White said Jan. 4, 2004. "You know, you win 12 games, and that's extremely hard to do nowadays in college football, and you don't have anything to show for it."

Tebow won't play for such high stakes Tuesday. Still, he knows he'll get more attention because he won the Heisman. And he would prefer not to feed the myth that a Heisman win dooms a quarterback.

"Hopefully," Tebow said, "I won't keep that reputation going too much longer."

HEISMAN HANGOVER?

Some quarterbacks have flopped in bowl games after winning the Heisman trophy. Others have flourished.

Flop

Flourish

Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.

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