A Texas Two-Stomp : McNown Takes Step in the Right Direction

One game into this town’s vigil for its first Heisman Trophy in 17 years, it’s a good time to review the rules:

1) Cade McNown is not going to pass for 400 yards every game.

2) He is not going to pass for five touchdowns every game.

3) This should not matter.

Admit it, many of you football-starved folks at the Rose Bowl were sweating Saturday, and it had nothing to do with the 80-degree heat.

One series into UCLA’s 49-31 whipping of Texas, and the Bruins’ first touchdown pass had been thrown by a, uh . . . receiver?

Two series into the game, their second touchdown was scored by a, uh . . . Tyus Edney-sized running back?

After one quarter, Cade McNown had completed only seven passes, none for more than 36 yards and none for touchdowns?

All around the bowl, sun-baked Bruin fans were having the same conversation.

“Dude,” they were reminding each other, “Tim Couch completes an average of seven passes on each series.”

Admit it, by the time the game had ended, despite McNown’s 339 yards and three touchdowns, you were thinking he had already fallen behind a Heisman race led by the stat-happy Couch of Kentucky, or East Coast favorite Donovan McNabb of Syracuse, or Washington’s drama-loving Brock Huard.

Think again.

The Bruins and McNown did enough Saturday that if this trend continues over the next 10 games, he should win the Heisman.

Heck, with its left arm clutching the ball, right arm fighting off a tackler, teeth gritted like it’s third and long, the little bronze fella even looks like McNown.

Saturday’s victory only enhanced that image, with the UCLA quarterback scrambling and gunning like the Cotton Bowl was last week.

There were no lost or forgotten steps, only new and better ones. The receivers are different, the blocking is different, but the courage and charisma are even stronger.

The scrambling 79-yard touchdown pass off his back foot, the quick touchdown toss with the entire state of Texas surrounding him, even the block on a reverse . . . those are the things that could carry him beyond other Heisman candidates with buttered-up statistics against popcorn opponents.

He has already vaulted ahead of the early consensus Heisman leader, who had the misfortune of being on the same field Saturday.

Ricky Williams gained an impressive 160 yards with three touchdowns for Texas on Saturday, all of which meant squat.

What McNown did counted. If it continues to count, so will he.

“In this offense, I’m not going to put up David Klingler-like numbers,” he said later, walking out of the locker room wearing a stare that remained intense long after the eye black had been washed away. “And we’re not going to play the Little Sisters of the Poor, not that I’m saying anyone else does.”

He shook his head.

“What we’re going to do is try to win football games, and if we do that, everything else will take care of itself.”

For once, the cliche works.

This is not mere West Coast bias talking (although, since a West Coast player hasn’t won a Heisman since USC’s Marcus Allen in 1981, a little bias is justified).

This is history talking.

Voters have recently shown they appreciate winning, giving the award to players on national championship teams the last two years.

UCLA will win. If it can figure out a running game that stuck McNown with too many second-and-long cramps Saturday--pssst, the answer is DeShaun Foster--it can win big.

Voters have also recently shown they appreciate game-breaking leadership, bypassing quarterback Peyton Manning last year for defensive back Charles Woodson.

McNown will give you bunches of that.

He set up the Bruins’ first score with a scrambling 16-yard pass to Freddie Mitchell.

He set up their second with a perfect over-the-right-shoulder pass to Danny Farmer covering 31 yards.

His first touchdown pass--making the score 28-3--was one of those McNown specials, a quick flick while surrounded by huge shadows.

“It’s gotten so I can just feel the rush,” he said.

Then came his third touchdown pass, his first for this year’s highlight video, a scrambling throw off his back foot that went 45 yards in the air before landing in the hands of Mitchell, who sprinted the rest of the 79 yards.

‘If there is one player who can win the Heisman without outrageous statistics, it’s going to be Cade McNown,” linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo said.

That is not something to be criticized, but admired.

Give Coach Bob Toledo and offensive coordinator Al Borges credit for not behaving like some coaches at small schools who are suckered into the notion that winning a Heisman is more important than a championship.

The fact that the Bruins ran the ball 11 more times than they passed it Saturday (42-31) indicates that everyone seems worried about buffing up for this award except the coaches.

“If you’re waiting for [Cade] to throw for six touchdowns and 400 yards, forget it,” Borges said. “If that’s what it takes to win the Heisman, he’ll never win it.”

But it’s not. And UCLA is smart enough to know that.

“If you want somebody who is going to lead and compete and help a good team win, that is Cade,” Borges said. “Our offense is totally based around Cade, but what we’re about here is winning.”

McNown told reporters that, while standing on a field where he once struggled to grow up, something funny happened Saturday.

“I was suddenly hit with this feeling of peace,” he said. “It was like, I belong here, I want to be here, I can’t wait to get out.”

Today Bruin fans can share that feeling. For both a team and a player headed on parallel paths toward good times, the first day was only the beginning.