HEISMAN PARADISE LOST ON WHITE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

MIAMI - In the fairy tale they peddle to every small-town kid rehearsing spiral passes with a sandlot-scuffed football, the Heisman Trophy winner lives happily ever after. In the fairy tale, the man awarded the little bronze statue enjoys sports' equivalent of immortality. In the fairy tale, the hero strides lightly into the future whistling ``They Can't Take That Away From Me.''

Tell it to Jason White.

For White - the quarterback who leads Oklahoma against USC in the Orange Bowl national-championship game here Tuesday night - the Heisman's happily-ever-after lasted, what was it, a month?

``The thing that sticks in my head,'' he said, ``is the e-mails after the Sugar Bowl, saying I needed to give back the Heisman Trophy (and) quit the team.''

White was smiling here Sunday as he remembered the aftermath of Oklahoma's national-championship loss to LSU last January.

``One of my friends sent me a newspaper clipping saying they needed a recount on the Heisman vote,'' he said. ``Somebody wrote that.''

Another columnist wrote that in light of his 35.1-percent completions, two interceptions, zero touchdown passes against LSU, White should be the subject of a recall election.

``Stuff like that motivates me,'' he said.

There was last summer's preseason vote for Big 12 conference offensive player of the year in which reporters picked Kansas State's Darren Sproles over the reigning Heisman winner. There was the balloting at the same time for the All-Big 12 team in which Missouri's Brad Smith was chosen as co-first-team quarterback with the defending Heisman winner. And there was the request from Sports Illustrated for White to pose for this year's college-football preview edition cover with the Heisman Trophy - and USC's Matt Leinart.

``I felt like this was a great opportunity to come back (for his senior season) and once again prove myself,'' he said. ''I guess last year wasn't enough.''

White seemed not at all stung when, despite improving his statistics in 2004, he finished third in this year's Heisman balloting behind Leinart and Oklahoma tailback Adrian Peterson and thus failed to match Archie Griffin's back-to-back trophies.

But he did seem to consider it a low blow when even an Oklahoma teammate knocked the White re-election campaign recently. Wonderfully unfiltered defensive end Larry Birdine said he would have picked Utah quarterback Alex Smith for the Heisman.

``Larry's got his own opinion,'' White said. ''Everybody's entitled to his own opinion.''

The 24-year-old whose fairy tale ran out too soon can recite chapter - if not verse - on the insults that few Heisman Trophy holders have ever had to endure.

Bottom line: The unfair slights are the reason you root for White's Sooners on Tuesday unless you're a committed Trojans fan. They're the reason White's Sooners can draw just as much positive karma from last season as the BCS-jilted Trojans. And they're the reason White is a football hero no less than if he'd earned that Heisman repeat.

Because White didn't make excuses, the e-mailers and newspaper comedians might not have known that when he performed poorly in Oklahoma's Big 12 title-game loss to Kansas State (a few days before the 2003 Heisman announcement) and worse in the national title-game loss to LSU (three weeks after the Heisman show), he was working with a sore right knee, a broken big toe, a sprained passing hand and the effects of a concussion.

Nor did White's instant critics consider how the absence of a Sooners ground threat forced him into the string of incompletions and interceptions that doomed the team last winter.

Nor did White's detractors appreciate how hard it might be to rattle a salt-of-the-Oklahoma-earth type whose Heisman stands unshakeably on his parents' fireplace mantle in the town of Tuttle (population 4,300).

He is a father himself, living in Norman with his girlfriend Tammy Winters and their 3-year-old daughter, Tinley. He is a rare player seasoned by six years of college football after having been awarded extra years of eligibility when his 1999 and 2002 seasons were cut short by knee operations. He is a bright and likable guy with a disarming propensity for malapropisms, such as when he talked Sunday about the freshman Peterson's role this year in ``the emergency of the running game.''

Making his Oklahoma finale Tuesday more special will be the presence of Brian Stewart, a one-time Tuttle High volunteer coach who is wheelchair-bound after battling brain cancer for nine years.

``I'm sure it's going to be a struggle for his family to get him on the plane and for him to get around down here,'' White said at Pro Player Stadium. ``But they know what he wants. It means a lot to me that he wants to watch my last college game.

``He's helped me through some struggles. He doesn't know that. But watching him go through what he goes through every day makes me realize things aren't that bad.''

In one last on-going slight, Jason White was saying Sunday, he finds he's getting a lot of questions about Leinart's Heisman performance and few about the fact this is the first game ever to match two Heisman winners.

It's all right with White. Outside Leinart's spotlight, he's enjoying the bowl week more than he did a year ago, feeling better prepared for the national-title game this time.

How about a fairy tale ending on the second try?

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Oklahoma quarterback Jason White saw his Heisman win criticized after losing the BCS title game to LSU last year.

J. Pat Carter/Associated Press

Box:

JASON WHITE AT OKLAHOMA