Olsen Needs Trojans for Heisman

By Hugo Guzman | Tuesday, November 15, 2005 | ( 0 )

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Drew Olsen, quarterback for the UCLA Bruins who are affectionately known as the comeback kids here in Los Angeles, is garnering support from his coach Karl Dorrell for a Heisman candidacy. If you ask this writer, it's most likely so the two can catch a Broadway show and visit the Guggenheim.

Sure Olsen leads the nation in passing efficiency (172.47) and sure he also leads in both touchdown passes (30) and interception percentage (0.93). Sure he's led almost half a dozen fourth quarter cardiac comebacks. So why is he not mentioned with the trio that is certain to produce the winner (Vince Young, Matt Leinart, and Reggie Bush)? It's simple.

The Heisman is a seasonal thing. In a year with lots of one-loss teams, the trophy is up for grabs, however in a year like this year, where there are two teams heading head first to play for the national championship (in UCLA's home stadium, no less), the players on the one-loss teams get the nod. Sure, if a player on a losing team was head and shoulders above the guys on the undefeated teams, well that's one thing, but look at what the other candidates are doing. Leinart has thrown for over 3,000 yards and 23 touchdowns, while having to split those TDs with Reggie Bush (11 TDs) and LenDale White (17 TDs). Sure, UCLA has a great back in Maurice Jones-Drew, but he's got 13 TDs and back up Chris Markey only has 3.

To put that in perspective, Leinart has 12 more touchdowns coming from his backfield, and seventeen if you count the 5 he's run in himself. Pete Carroll's game is to spread the ball around and keep the blue chips happy, and all signs (save a one game blip of White complaining about touches) point to his success.

Given Matt's success over his three year career, it's safe to say if the Trojan's had only one good back, as is the case with UCLA, LenDale's TDs would be spread between Bush and the receiving core. It is likely that those TDs would be spread more to the receiving than to Bush, but for the sake of being uber fair, let's say Bush gained 9 TDs and the receivers 8 TDs. That still puts Matty L. at 31 TDs. Heismans are not about stats, is my point. They are about being the most superior player in the country.

Drew Olsen is good, but Vince Young and Matt Leinart have been flawless. How can you pick Olsen over a guy who put up 230 yards in the air and over 260 on the ground in one game? Or Leinart, who carried the Trojans down the field, checking into an audible on fourth and long at Notre Dame Stadium, only to cap the drive by faking a spike and going successfully for the win with a QB sneak? A Heisman winner must carry his team on his back when the walls are caving in. It's not a forgiving business and when your competition is flawless, so too you must be.

So has Olsen been flawless? Almost. Despite all the 4th quarter comebacks, one has to question why where they so far behind so late? A QB needs to be the facilitator of the offense, and on a million levels, late comebacks mean early setbacks.

Oh, and one more thing� Heisman campaigns can't have chancre sores. Unfortunately, two weeks ago when UCLA visited the not-so-mighty Wildcats in Tucson, Arizona, he got his chancre sore. Losing to a 2-6 U of A team not only hurts your own team, but that might have been a benchmark win for Arizona. If they win a BCS game in a few years, they will remember that game as the one that tipped the scales. And some kid will ask his father, �Who was the quarterback for UCLA? And Drew Olsen's name will come up. In fairness, in the Arizona game Olsen threw 2 TDs, no INTs and over two hundred yards, but for an offense so prolific, that game came off more as anemic for the Bruins.

Olsen does have a chance (and no it doesn't involve Matt Leinart going blind and Bush and Young's feet being encased in concrete). A big win at the Coliseum over USC on December 2nd is the kind of medicine that cures Arizonan chancre sores. It's the kind of win where voters have their minds changed.

It's true. Olsen's road to New York City most definitely runs through Troy.

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