Looking for No. 1

By Chris Dufresne

Dec. 31, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. —

The euphoria of Oklahoma quarterback Jason White’s Heisman Trophy-winning season in 2003 wore off roughly around the time he received the first question regarding his 2004 status.

And that question was:

“Who’s going to be the starting QB?” White related after practice this week as he prepared for Tuesday’s national title game against USC in the Orange Bowl.

Shoot, it used to take a little time for people to snail-mail these kind of dispatches.

You used to have to put pen to pad and then lick the stamp, right?

These days, news burns straight from fingertips right through cyberspace.

One e-mail read: “You should give back the Heisman and quit the team. Thank you.”

White, for what it’s worth, threw for 40 touchdowns in 2003 and enjoyed one of the finest seasons ever by an Oklahoma passer.

Except, he wasn’t really allowed to enjoy it.

Oklahoma, see, lost two games.

The last two -- the wrong two.

Entering a Big 12 Conference title game in which Oklahoma was billed as one of the best teams in college football history, the Sooners tripped over their press clippings in a 35-7 loss to Kansas State.

Thanks to a modern miracle/mess known as the bowl championship series standings, though, Oklahoma still ended up in the BCS national title game against Louisiana State.

The Sooners lost that one, too, 21-14.

White had no touchdowns passes in his last eight quarters to go with four interceptions.

On his mantle back home in Tuttle, Okla., the Heisman Trophy started to resemble a bobblehead doll.

White earned a sixth-year medical redshirt from the NCAA to return this season, which pleased some Sooner fans and disappointed others.

“People had questions,” White said. “Telling me that I’m never going to play again. That it was stupid for me to come back. Things like that to motivate me.”

White’s status as Oklahoma’s starting quarterback this year was never in serious jeopardy in the mind of Coach Bob Stoops.

Yet, even the echo of distant, baseless criticism stung White enough to rile up his emotions.

This is a guy, after all, who has been counted out more times than Rocky Balboa.

White returned this year to prove the doubters wrong and to tie up a few loose ends.

“My goal wasn’t to come back and win the Heisman again,” he said.

He didn’t either, that award going to Tuesday’s quarterback counterpart, Matt Leinart.

White came back to win the national title.

His year, statistically, doesn’t compare to 2003. He has thrown for fewer yards (2,961 yards compared to 3,846) and fewer touchdowns (33 versus 40).

White deferred much of the load to a steam-engine freshman tailback, Adrian Peterson.

Yet, strangely, this year has been infinitely more satisfying to White.

Maybe there’s nothing like losing a Heisman Trophy.

The advance to this year’s title game doesn’t compare to last year’s rubber-chicken banquet tour run-up.

“There’s been a lot less attention, it’s been easier for me,” White said. “I don’t have to answer questions about the Heisman jinx and all that good stuff. I’ve been able to enjoy it more this year.”

White said he has all but blotted last year’s Sugar Bowl nightmare from his memory bank.

“We lost,” he said. “That’s the only thing I remember from the whole week. We lost. If we won I think I would have remembered a lot more things.”

Here’s another thing a lot of people don’t know about last year: White was in almost constant pain. He won the Heisman despite throbbing knees and an assortment of other ailments, most undisclosed thanks to the veil of secrecy that shrouds most big-time college programs.

White was hurt, though, up to and through the Sugar Bowl.

He didn’t say anything because that’s not his style. His whole career had been built on experiencing pain and playing through it.

Perhaps no player in college football history had gone through more to reach the top. Knee injuries wiped out his 2001 and ’02 seasons. He blew out one knee the first year and the other the second.

“It’s an amazing, amazing story what he’s done,” Stoops said this week.

Stoops remembers almost feeling White’s pain after the quarterback suffered his second knee injury, against Alabama, in the second game of the 2002 season.

Two torn knees in two years, and he wasn’t touched on either injury.

Stoops recalled the “how-could-this-happen-again?” look in White’s eyes on the sideline.

For White to rebound from that to win the Heisman in 2003 should have been enough to earn him a cable-show biopic.

But it wasn’t ... it never is.

“It’s easy I think for people to say, ‘Oh, he overcame two knee injuries’ and it just takes one sentence and you’re on to everything else,” Stoops said. “You have to really look at what these kids go through recovering from knee injuries. It’s a full, seven-, eight-month process of pain, and push and work and rehabilitation.”

The best part about 2004 is that White has not had to grimace through it.

“This whole season, knock wood, he hasn’t been in the training room at all,” Stoops said. “Doesn’t even need to go in for follow-ups, or even for ice very often. He’s much healthier, all year, even with his knees and being under center more. He’s just fully recovered.”

Oklahoma defensive end Dan Cody said that history would be kinder to White than the present.

“That guy won the Heisman Trophy,” Cody said. “Then he almost won it a second year. That’s amazing stuff. It’s one of those deals when we look back on it 10 or 15 years from now, we’ll understand how amazing it is.”

No time for looking ahead just yet.

White returned to put a national title cap on his brilliant career.

“I haven’t got all my goals, but this one’s right out in front of us,” White said. “A lot of guys on the team came back for this reason, to play in this game, to win in this game. What better way to end your career? We have a lot of seniors. What better way to end your career than at No. 1?”

As for those critical e-mails White still keeps stored in the hard drive of his computer, he keeps them the way you keep post-it notes -- as reminders.

“People are entitled to their own opinions,” White said. “Things like that motivate me. I thank them for saying it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

THE ORANGE BOWL / Tuesday at Miami. Payout: $11-14 million. 5 p.m. PST, Channel 7

USC (12-0)

LEADERS

* Passing: Matt Leinart, 2,990 yards passing, 28 TDs, 154.5 rating

* Rushing: LenDale White, 985 yards rushing, 5.2 avg., 10 TDs; Reggie Bush, 2,181 all-purpose yards, 15 TDs

* Receiving: Dwayne Jarrett, 50 receptions, 734 yards, 12 TDs

* Tackles: Lofa Tatupu, 92 tackles, 50 solo

TEAM LOG

at Virginia Tech W, 24-13

Colorado State W, 49-0