Dorsey Takes the Grand Prize

They are life partners. Eric Crouch of Nebraska took the Heisman Trophy to have and to hold, till death do them part.

Ken Dorsey of Miami, a single man, has something more lasting. Something eternal. A season for the ages, his team unbeaten, untied, unbowed.

No regrets. Just a performance as close to perfection as a 20-year-old beanpole from Orinda, Calif., can rightfully expect.

Dorsey passed for 362 yards and three touchdowns in the Hurricanes’ 37-14 victory in the Rose Bowl on Thursday night. He completed 22 of 35 passes and was hardly touched by Cornhusker rushers, let alone sacked.

“We just won the national championship of college football,” Dorsey said, letting out the nervous giggle of a kid who can’t quite believe what he accomplished.

Meanwhile, Crouch addressed what got away.

“They blew us out early, they stopped our running game and put us in third and long all day,” he said. “They were better. Ken is a tremendous player, a team player and I’m just happy I got to know him the last two months at all the awards functions.”

The Nebraska senior emerged the winner at most of those. But in this game, the difference between the quarterbacks was so dramatic, it was hard to imagine that Crouch outpointed Dorsey in Heisman voting, 770 to 638, with Florida’s Rex Grossman wedged between them.

Crouch was a study in wasted motion. He huffed and puffed, ran in circles, dropped the ball and threw it away--all, it seemed, between the 30-yard lines.

He rushed for 114 yards in 22 carries, but 37 came on a meaningless fourth-quarter run and he lost yardage on several option keepers and scrambles. And most egregiously, he fumbled midway through the first quarter and threw an interception that was returned by James Lewis for a touchdown that keyed a 27-point, second-quarter Hurricane blitz.

Meanwhile, Dorsey was a portrait of unruffled precision, like dad carving the holiday turkey. When he wasn’t rifling balls down the middle to tight end Jeremy Shockey, he was hitting Andre Johnson with long passes.

Johnson made a 49-yard catch and run for the only score of the first quarter, then he and Dorsey really went to work in the second quarter. They hooked up on a 34-yard gain to open the quarter, and two plays later Clinton Portis dashed 39 yards for a touchdown.

Two minutes later Miami went 66 yards in two pass plays, a 45-yarder to Johnson and a 21-yarder to Shockey. Miami had one last possession in the half and Dorsey completed four in a row, the last an eight-yard touchdown to Johnson for a 34-0 lead.

At game’s end, Dorsey and Johnson, the co-most valuable players, stood on a platform, soaking in the moment.

“The entire team deserves the MVP award,” said Dorsey, adding that he will return to Miami for his senior season.

Crouch has only memories. And because what you’ve done lately seems to matter most, a sour ending eclipsed four years of shining moments.

The fact that he is one of three Division I quarterbacks to pass for 4,000 yards and rush for 3,000 in his career, that he is the 13th quarterback to pass and rush for 1,000 yards in a single season, that he won a school-record 34 games as a starter? On Thursday, they were merely a jumble of numbers.

Fresh in everyone’s mind was Nebraska blowing its chance at an unbeaten season by losing to Colorado, 62-36, despite Crouch piling up huge numbers in a catch-up role. Then this embarrassing loss to Miami with Crouch completing only five of 15 passes for 62 yards.

“I’ve had a tremendous career at Nebraska,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about who I am and who I want to be. I’ll never have a chance to experience this again, and despite the way it ended, it was great.”

Greater still for Dorsey, who broke Miami’s bowl record of 321 passing yards set by George Mira against Nebraska in the 1962 Gotham Bowl. The unassuming kid who doesn’t blush when his mother gives him a peck on the cheek is as large a part of Hurricane lore as Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Heisman winners Vinny Testaverde and Gino Torretta.

As for Dorsey’s Heisman chase, there’s always next year.

But Crouch can tell Dorsey all about the relative value of awards. In addition to the Heisman, he won the Walter Camp Award and the Davey O’Brien Trophy.

He’d gladly trade them all for a single day in Dorsey’s life--a day neither will forget.