Heisman goes to the wrong Pac-10 quarterback

Sporting News, The, Dec 23, 2002 by Tom Dienhart

The ballot was in the mail, but I was having second thoughts. I voted for Southern California quarterback Carson Palmer to be the Heisman Trophy winner. It would be hard for most voters to ignore the resume he built while playing the nation's toughest schedule. Palmer's 425-yard, four-touchdown effort in a regular season-ending 44-13 rout of Notre Dame was an exclamation point on a terrific campaign. Besides, it was time for a Pac-10 player to win the award. It hadn't happened since 1981, when USC running back Marcus Allen turned the trick.

But the more I thought about it, the more I know I voted for the wrong Pac-10 quarterback. Washington State's Jason Gesser should have been the quarterback clutching the Heisman last Saturday night in New York.

It was Gesser's Cougars who won the Pac-10, not Palmer's Trojans. Gesser's Cougars even beat palmer's Trojans. And as far as dosing salvos go, none was more impressive than Gesser's effort vs. UCLA on December 7. He essentially played on one leg, wearing braces on a right knee and ankle he sprained two weeks earlier. No one knew if Gesser, who already this season had played through a painful rib injury, would take the field against the Bruins. He not only played, he sparkled, throwing for 247 yards and two touchdowns in a 48-27 win that clinched a conference title for 10-2 Washington State.

Take a good look at those losses. Gasser and the Cougars lost at Ohio Stale, 25-7, and at home to Washington, 29-26, in three overtimes. There's no shame in losing to the Buckeyes, as proved by their berth in the Fiesta Bowl national championship game. As for the loss to the Huskies, Gesser got hurt and missed most of the fourth quarter and all of overtime in a game that ended on a controversial call. If he had played the entire game, Washington State would have won.

Now, look at 10-2 USC's losses--27-20 at Kansas State and 30-27 at Washington State in overtime. Not many teams win at Manhattan, but K-State couldn't win the Big 12 North championship. The loss at Pullman speaks for itself. And Palmer and his supporting offensive cast were healthy all season.

Speaking of supporting casts, Gesser succeeded with a team that pales in comparison with the star-studded roster USC featured. Despite that, Gesser pushed Washington State to a rare Rose Bowl appearance. He also succeeded despite the weight of heavy expectations. Gesser, not Palmer, entered the season on everyone's Heisman watch list.

Expectations for Palmer--he entered the season with the reputation of an underachiever who had a 16-16 record as a starter--and the Trojans weren't great after a 6-6 finish in 2001 that ended in a howl loss to Utah. Utah! It wouldn't have been a surprise if Palmer and USC struggled again. But Gesser and the Cougars were supposed to kick butt, and they did. It's much more difficult to deliver the goods when everyone expects it of you.

Then there are the numbers. Palmer completed 288 of 458 passes (62.9 percent) for 3,639 yards and 32 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. Gesser completed 219 of 368 passes (59.5 percent) for 3,169 yards and 27 touchdowns with 11 picks. Those figures seem pretty similar. But when Palmer's are served up with a heaping helping of the mega-media exposure playing in Los Angeles provides, his must look better to outsiders.

We know all about the so called West Coast bias. But on that coast--and particularly within the Pac-10--there's another bias, one crafted by the pretty boys in southern California who eat sushi and drive foreign convertibles. Call it the Northwest bias. Washington may be immune because of its location in big-city Seattle. But Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State are out of the way and, therefore, out of the minds of those in La La Land, the Bay Area and Phoenix.

Here's a simple test of that point: If Palmer and Gesser switched teams and posted the numbers each did this season, do you think Palmer still would have won the Heisman? I don't.

Of course, this is history repeating itself. In recent years, the Heisman almost exclusively has gone to players from glamour schools. Since Allen took the Heisman, only four players from "small-name" schools have won it: Boston College's Doug Flutie in 1984, Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders in '88, Houston's Andre Ware in '89 and BYU's Ty Detmer in '90. Some might argue that BYU is a glamour school and that Flutie benefited from playing in a huge East Coast market, but other than that, the winners' list is dotted with guys from Michigan, Florida, Texas, Miami, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Nebraska ... you get the picture.

The only way a guy from Washington State or a similar non-glamour school can win the Heisman is by posting huge numbers that simply can't be ignored--and even that isn't a guarantee.

I congratulate Palmer on winning the award, but I offer my condolences to Gesser. He deserved better.

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