Three returning Heisman winners for OU
Sam Bradford is the third Sooner to return after winning the Heisman Trophy.
The first two failed to repeat. Through no fault of their own. Billy Sims in 1979 and Jason White in 2004 had spectacular seasons. Maybe not quite the same seasons as they had in their Heisman-winning year, but spectacular.
Sims in 1979 carried 248 times for 1,670 yards and 23 touchdowns. In ’78, he carried 256 times for 1,896 yards and 22 TDs. Sims lost the ’79 Heisman in a narrow vote to USC’s Charles White. Sims clearly was the better tailback; it was hard to beat a USC tailback in those days. Sims’ final two regular-season games were the best two-game series in OU history: 282 yards rushing vs. Missouri, 247 vs. Nebraska. An amazing ballplayer.
By the way, Sims caught one pass in 1978 and one pass in 1979. In ’78, the reception went for 35 yards. In ’79, the reception went for 42 yards. No offense to Galen Hall and Barry Switzer, but you’d think that would have given them an idea. Throw it to Sims more often.
Anyway, Jason White. His 2003 season was the OU gold standard until Sam Bradford’s 2008 came along. In ’03, White completed 278 of 451 passes, a .616 percentage. He threw for 3,846 yards, 40 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions. He won the Heisman over Pitt’s Larry Fitzgerald.
But White’s 2004 season was almost as good, when he was beaten out by USC quarterback Matt Leinart and OU teammate Adrian Peterson. White’s 1-3 finish in Heismans remains, even in this age of hype, one of the more underrated accomplishments in Sooner history. Anyway, in 2004, White completed 255 of 390 passes, a .654 percentage. He threw for 3,205 yards. 35 touchdowns and nine interceptions. So let’s review. His totals were slightly down, his percentage was up, from one of the most explosive Heisman-winning seasons ever.
Just like Sims, a phenomenal Heisman encore.
If Bradford does the same, the Sooners will be sitting pretty.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I am confident and prepared for the lovefest to continue for Tebow. However, if Colt has even a comparable year to Sam and Tebow, he will win the Heisman. Jim Brown was quoted as saying that he will NEVER vote for a player that would give them their second Heisman.
People either love or hate media darlings (see Notre Dame), and Tebow is on that list for me. I respect and suppose I would not dislike Tebow personally, but the man-crush the media has on Tebow has worn me out. Though I admit it is simply wrong, I hope Tebow has a bad year and fails in the NFL.
By the way… it may be good for ratings, but Trabor needs to dial it down on some of his opinions and comments.