BEAVERS TRYING TO KEEP HEISMAN HYPE IN CHECK.Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard CORVALLIS - The Beavers have traveled this Heisman highway before. Steven Jackson For Carolina Panthers American football fullback, see . For the basketball player, see . Steven Rashad Jackson (born July 22. 1983 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American football running back for the St. Louis Rams of the NFL. is the latest Oregon State athlete whose name is being linked to the chase for college football's grandest prize. First came Terry Baker. Forty-one years ago, he parlayed his 1,738 yards passing and 538 more yards rushing with Oregon State's 9-2 record that included a Liberty Bowl win over Villanova into a trophy-winning combination. In 2001, smack dab in the middle of the high-tech age, OSU (Open Source UNIX) Refers to the Unix variants that are maintained as open source, which were primarily BSD Unix and Linux until Sun made its Solaris operating system open source in 2005. settled Ken Simonton in the award's starting gate starting gate n. Sports 1. A series of stalls with interconnected doors that open simultaneously at the beginning of a race. 2. . The Beavers ponied up $100,000, half of it supplied by donors, and went to work in August. Videotapes, CD-ROMs, notepads, his own Web site on the Internet and more pages of statistics than you can shake a computer at descended on the media. Simonton was wired for satellite time throughout fall camp, teleconference calls were plugged in and live interviews were ready to go from any stadium - home and away - when the season began. Then the season began. On a sweltering swel·ter·ing adj. 1. Oppressively hot and humid; sultry. 2. Suffering from oppressive heat. swel September night in Fresno, Calif., Simonton's race for the Heisman was detoured. For good. The Beavers rolled into the San Joaquin Valley Noun 1. San Joaquin Valley - a vast valley in central California known for its rich farmland Calif., California, Golden State, CA - a state in the western United States on the Pacific; the 3rd largest state; known for earthquakes as Sports Illustrated's choice for No. 1 in the nation. Fresno State had other ideas. Simonton, who had rushed for more than 1,000 in his first three seasons, was held to 42 yards and OSU was drilled 44-24. "The Heisman went out the window in the first half of that Fresno State game," said Hal Cowan, the long-time sports information director at Oregon State. "Ken was put in a position to fail, and you don't do that. I think all that stuff did more harm than good." The plan was devised by Mitch Barnhart, then the OSU director of athletics. His intentions were good. The plan, hindsight suggests, was not. "You have to win (the Heisman Trophy Heisman Trophy Annual award given to the outstanding college gridiron football player in the U.S. The trophy was instituted in 1935 by New York City's Downtown Athletic Club and was officially named the following year for the club's first athletic director, the player-coach ) with what you do on the field," Cowan said. "You don't buy or manufacture the vote. Our job is to get the information of what a player is doing out there, but the reality is that your team has to be in the hunt for a BCS (1) (The British Computer Society, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, www.bcs.org) The chartered body for information technology professionals in the U.K., founded in 1957. (Bowl Championship Series) bowl berth." In 2001, Simonton struggled dearly but failed to rush for 1,000 yards. The Beavers also struggled and finished with a 5-6 record, a hard fall after the remarkable 2000 season's 11-1 record, No. 4 national ranking, a share of the Pac-10 Conference championship and win over Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Tostitos tortilla chips (a Frito-Lay product), is a United States college football game played annually since 1971. Originally, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium where it remained until 2006. . "But I think we learned our lesson," said Bob De Carolis, who replaced Barnhart when the latter left to become the director of athletics at Kentucky last year. "We put the cart before the horse. Our focus went away from winning the game and instead to winning the Heisman. "Campaigning doesn't work." Consensus all but insists that when the more than 1,000 voters cast their ballots by Dec. 10 and the announcement of the winner is made on Dec. 13, the decision will have been based on how the individual and his team did during the regular season, and little else. The 20-year-old Jackson is the real deal. A junior tailback from Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. , he won the Pac-10 rushing title last year with an OSU single-season record of 1,690 yards. After six games this season, Jackson leads the conference and is second in the nation with 877 yards. He leads in all-purpose yards with 1,080. He leads in scoring with 60 points, the result of nine rushing touchdowns and one receiving. He can charm the watch right off your wrist with his engaging grin, twinkling eyes, shoulder-length dreadlocks dread·locks pl.n. 1. A natural hairstyle in which the hair is twisted into long matted or ropelike locks. 2. A similar hairstyle consisting of long thin braids radiating from the scalp. and a gentle presence despite his 6-foot-3, 233-pound frame that usually requires three or four defenders to bring down. "But Steven will tell you the team is the most important thing," De Carolis said. "If you're just trying to win the Heisman and you take away from what the team is trying to accomplish, it's not right and it's not going to work." So, the Beavers- 5-1 and sharing the Pac-10 lead at 2-0 with Washington coming to town on Saturday - are borrowing a page from USC's guide on how to run in the Heisman race. The Trojans quietly waited for the Trojans and quarterback Carson Palmer Carson Palmer (born December 27, 1979 in Fresno, California), is an American football quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. He attended the University of Southern California, where he won the Heisman Trophy Award in 2002 in his senior season. to make their moves. "The way USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. did it with Palmer last year was the way to do it," Cowan said. "It was wait and see." Tim Tessalone, USC's veteran sports information director, said Palmer was never considered a Heisman candidate before the 2002 season began but "the team got hot and Carson got hot at midyear. The other hyped candidates were not separating themselves." That when USC went to work. Sort of. Mailouts included a card fashioned like a ticket with Palmer's picture, stats and other information on it. Phone calls and e-mails supplied awareness and updated statistics. Total cost? "About $200," Tessalone said. "There was no budget for this." And who won? The Trojans, with an 11-2 record, and Palmer, who passed for nearly 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns and led a beating of Notre Dame on national television just before the Heisman vote. Palmer threw for 425 yards and four touchdowns as USC clubbed the Irish 44-13. Timing is everything. "The kid kept playing well, the team kept playing well (USC finished the season with eight straight wins) and the Notre Dame game was huge," Tessalone said. De Carolis cited three elements required for a successful completing of a Heisman race. "The individual has to have a stellar season," he said. "The team has to have a stellar season. And you have to have national exposure at the right moment." Tessalone said a little karma doesn't hurt, either. "Maybe the moon and the stars were aligned properly," he said. "If the voting had gone a week earlier or a week later, Carson might not have won." And maybe Jackson won't. "But," he said, "it's been my dream for 13 years." Jackson is saying and doing all the right things. "I have put it (the Heisman issue) in the back of my mind. I've had some attention but the team has to win,' he said. "The team is the most important thing. It's different here than it is at USC, but everybody will get to know me as we go along." Oregon State coach Mike Riley
"Steven will be in contention but it will only be the result of us doing well." HUNT FOR THE HEISMAN Oregon State's Steven Jackson is among the early leaders in the chase for the coveted cov·et v. cov·et·ed, cov·et·ing, cov·ets v.tr. 1. To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). See Synonyms at envy. 2. To wish for longingly. See Synonyms at desire. Heisman Trophy Name University Year Position Jason White Jason White is the name of:
Kevin Jones Kevin Jones is the name of:
B.J. Symons Texas Tech Sr. Quarterback Larry Fitzgerald Pittsburgh So. Wide receiver Steven Jackson Oregon State Jr. Running back CAPTION(S): Oregon State's Steven Jackson has carried the burden of the offense so far this season. |
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