In Heisman Derby, Sanders Was Never Even at the Starting Gate

The Heisman Trophy campaign begins in the spring preceding a football season. By fall, the candidates are clearly identified.

Certainly the electorate was well aware of senior quarterbacks Rodney Peete of USC and Troy Aikman of UCLA in August. Miami quarterback Steve Walsh was in the picture, too, but hadn’t been accorded as much national magazine exposure as cover boys Peete and Aikman.

Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State? He wasn’t even in the starting blocks when the season began. He was a kickoff and punt-return specialist who was making his debut at tailback.

A Heisman publicity program for Sanders? Absurd.

“We did nothing,” said Steve Buzzard, Oklahoma State’s sports information director.

“There were two other players on offense, quarterback Mike Gundy and split end Hart Lee Dykes, who were just as good and had opportunities for postseason honors. The Heisman was never mentioned.”

Nor were there any great expectations for Sanders, a junior from Wichita. He was simply trying to fill the shoes of departed All-American Thurman Thomas.

Even Oklahoma State Coach Pat Jones apparently was unaware of Sanders’ potential.

In Street & Smith’s preseason college football publication, Jones alluded to Thomas’ 1,613 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns in 1987 by saying: “I think Sanders and (Mitch) Nash together will have about the same kind of stats as Thurman.”

Slight miscalculation, coach. Sanders, averaging 35 carries a game, gained 2,628 yards, breaking the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. single-season rushing record of 2,342 by USC’s Marcus Allen in 1981. Sanders more than doubled Thomas’ touchdown production with 37. Moreover, he lost only 1 fumble the entire season.

And in doing all those things, Sanders slipped into the Heisman race.

Buzzard said that the first inkling that Sanders wasn’t just another good running back was when Sanders gained 304 yards against Tulsa Oct. 1, the Cowboys’ third game.

“After that, the attention he was getting from nationwide media had picked up so dramatically that we knew we had to do something,” Buzzard said. “So we started to put some plans together by midseason.

“Then, there was a 3-week stretch where the publicity took care of itself. There was a Sports Illustrated article and CNN (cable television) did a big feature on him.

“We came out with a poster, which was mailed, and I sent some video highlights to select broadcast media across the country. But what we did was a very minor support role.”

Aikman and Peete had been clearly the most high-profile Heisman candidates before the season, and Aikman became the front-runner when he led UCLA to a 41-28 victory over Nebraska Sept. 10 in a nationally televised game.

At that juncture, it seemed it was Aikman’s trophy to win or lose. Peete was performing competently but in USC’s first significant nationally televised game, against Oklahoma Sept. 24, he didn’t have dazzling statistics in the Trojans’ 23-7 victory.

Aikman’s candidacy got another boost Oct. 15, when UCLA became the nation’s No. 1-ranked team after Notre Dame’s victory over previously top-ranked Miami.

The Bruins held the top spot only until Oct. 29, when they were upset by Washington State at the Rose Bowl, 34-30.

UCLA had an opportunity to win that game, which was televised to most of the country, in the last 44 seconds with a first down at the Cougars’ 6-yard line. But the Bruins couldn’t score, and Aikman’s Heisman stock dropped along with UCLA’s No. 1 ranking.

“I think people started doubting him after that game,” said Marc Dellins, UCLA’s sports information director. “I believe that there was a subconscious reaction that, ‘Here’s a Heisman candidate who can’t put the ball in the end zone.’

“I’m not putting Sanders down, because he had a super season. But a team isn’t as dependent on a running back for wins, or losses, as it is a quarterback. The quarterback gets more credit and also more blame, according to the outcome.”

Aikman completed 27 of 44 passes for 325 yards in that game, a statistic that was possibly obscured by UCLA’s failure to score at the end of the game.

The next week, Aikman’s numbers declined to 114 yards passing in a 16-6 win over Oregon in Eugene, Ore. The game plan there, however, was to run, since the Bruins were doing what was necessary to win while trying to stay alive in the Rose Bowl race. USC was still winning behind Peete and had moved up to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll behind Notre Dame.

Meanwhile, Sanders was still accumulating yardage, topped by a 320-yard performance against winless Kansas State Oct. 29.

He also had gained 189 yards against Nebraska earlier and then rushed for 215 yards Nov. 5 against Oklahoma in Oklahoma State’s only nationally televised game, that on ESPN, a cable network. Oklahoma State lost both games.

USC and UCLA each appeared 6 times in national network games and also had regional and cable TV exposure.

But Sanders was now familiar to the Heisman electorate, partly because film clips of his performances were being shown on ESPN and CNN, and partly because of a statistical update in USA Today, a national newspaper.

If there was any knock on Sanders in what has been called a once-in-a-lifetime season for a running back, it was that he was rolling up much of his yardage against weak teams.

Five of OSU’s 11 opponents--Miami of Ohio, Tulsa, Missouri, Kansas State and Kansas--had a combined season record of 8-45-2. By contrast, USC’s schedule was judged the most demanding in the country by the NCAA.

Buzzard has heard this criticism and he countered by saying, “You can’t handicap his performance by a schedule that we can’t control. There was probably more intense pressure for him against teams such as Kansas State and Kansas because he was supposed to run for as many yards as he wanted to.”

It has been written that Sanders’ winning of the Heisman Trophy by an overwhelming margin--1,878 points to 912 for Peete and 582 for Aikman--was a triumph of performance over hype, a backlash against players from large media markets.

However, Dellins, and his counterpart at USC, Tim Tessalone, said that they hadn’t done anything extraordinary in promoting their candidates.

Dellins sent out postcards each week, updating Aikman’s statistics. Tessalone included a “Peete Sheet” in his weekly releases, including statistics and complimentary quotes about Peete from coaches and writers.

“It wasn’t anything dramatic,” Tessalone said. “We just built a foundation. After that, we basically took a vacation and let Rodney take over.”

Both Peete and Aikman were available for conference calls and in-person interviews early in the week of a game.

With plenty of TV exposure in Los Angeles, and two strong football teams, the sports information directors didn’t have to resort to gimmicks such as the 90-second video production showing Vanderbilt’s Erik Jones stepping out of a white stretch limousine to the cheers of enthusiastic fans.

Tessalone also pointed out that Peete got additional attention with his celebrated case of the measles before the UCLA game and his laryngitis before the Notre Dame game. That brought a rash, so to speak, of unscheduled front sports page exposure.

But even though Peete got unexpected publicity and his picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated after leading then-unbeaten USC to a Rose Bowl bid-clinching win over UCLA Nov. 19, it seemed that Sanders had locked up the trophy more than a week before the Dec. 1 deadline for ballots.

A USA Today poll of some Heisman voters had Sanders with 170 first-place votes out of a possible 230.

Sanders will accept his Heisman Trophy tonight in New York. The Oklahoma State tailback, who has set 20 NCAA rushing and scoring records, was in Tokyo, where his team was playing Texas Tech, when the award was announced last Saturday.

In the final analysis, Sanders won the Heisman Trophy because he had an exceptional season--and not by default. Peete, Aikman and Walsh all had exceptional seasons, too, even breaking records or adding to their own.

But Sanders was just that much better. And that much more deserving.