White Could Join Griffin in Heisman Club

NEW YORK – Archie Griffin has stood alone for 29 years as the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner. Oklahoma quarterback Jason White has a chance to match the former Ohio State tailback Saturday night.

“I expect it to happen,” Griffin said this week. “And I’m not going to be upset if that happens. In fact, I’ll be awfully proud of Jason.”

White is only the third player to return to college football the year after winning a Heisman since Griffin went back-to-back in 1974 and ’75.

Oklahoma tailback Billy Sims won it 1978 as a junior, but finished a distant second to Southern California’s Charles White as a senior. BYU quarterback Ty Detmer finished third in 1991 after winning as a junior the year before.

“I have been one who has always said that someone else is going to do that,” said Griffin, now president of the Ohio State alumni association. “It has surprised me that it has taken so long to be totally honest with you.”

White completed 65 percent of his passes for 2,961 yards this season to become one of five Heisman finalists. Oklahoma tailback Adrian Peterson, USC’s Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush and Utah quarterback Alex Smith are the others.

Smith threw for 28 touchdowns and ran for 10 more, helping the Utes (11-0) become the first team from a non-BCS conference to reach the Bowl Championship series.

Leinart passed for 2,990 yards and 28 touchdowns, guiding USC to a spot in the Orange Bowl. Bush was the Trojans’ big-play specialist, averaging 182 all-purpose yards and scoring 15 TDs.

Former Houston quarterback Andre Ware, the 1989 winner, said deciding whom to vote for was never more difficult for him.

“It is because there’s so much talent,” he said. “There are so many guys who’ve had good years.”

In Griffin’s first Heisman season he had 1,695 yards rushing and 12 touchdowns to lead the Buckeyes to a share of the Big Ten title. He won the Heisman in a landslide over Anthony Davis, a tailback from USC.

The next year was much tougher. Many of the players around Griffin had changed and defenses were fired up to stop the Heisman winner.

“You’re a marked man once you win the award,” he said. “You do get a lot of attention. When guys tackle you they put a little more emphasis on the tackle.

“You’d hear them say, ‘Hey Heisman Trophy winner, how about this one.’ Pow!”

Griffin said he also put too much pressure on himself.

“I wanted to win it my senior year much more than I wanted to win it my junior year,” he said. “Coach (Woody) Hayes had this saying, ‘You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse.’”

For White, the follow-up year seems to have been more enjoyable.

He has convincingly said all along that he couldn’t care less about the award, tossing his support Peterson’s way.

Peterson’s presence lessened White’s load and made the Sooners (12-0) more balanced than last year. In fact, White’s late-season surge was in large part because defenses started focusing on Peterson, who ran for 1,843 yards and 15 TDs.

White’s numbers are down from last season (40 TD passes to 33), but Griffin’s production dropped his senior year (1,450 yards and four TDs) and that didn’t keep him from repeating.

And if the sixth-year senior doesn’t become a two-timer, Peterson certainly looks like a candidate to make a run at it someday.

“Well,” Griffin said, “you would think.”