Young Tries to Clear the Bulletin Board

Vince Young surprised many last week when he expressed disappointment at finishing second to Reggie Bush in the Heisman Trophy voting but said Friday that it wasn’t meant as a sign of disrespect to Bush.

“I’m a competitor,” Young said. “It wasn’t that I was disappointed that he won, it was I was disappointed I wouldn’t be able to bring the Heisman Trophy back to my teammates, the city of Austin and my fans. That was the point I was trying to get across, but I guess they took it in the wrong way.”

Bush won the Heisman last Saturday in a landslide with 2,541 points and 87.9% of the first-place votes, the highest percentage ever. Young was second with 1,608 points, but the 933-point differential was the second largest in history.

Most Heisman runners-up simply congratulate the winner with a smile, but Young was clearly disappointed at the results. He told reporters he felt as if he had let down his teammates, his hometown of Houston, his college town of Austin and said the snub should “give me a little bit more edge to show the world what a good team the University of Texas is.”

Young, a junior, previously had won the Maxwell Award, which is also a player-of-the-year honor, and the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback.

He has since been announced as the first-team quarterback on the Associated Press All-American team.

Coach Mack Brown defended his quarterback, saying it wasn’t fair to shove cameras and microphones in front of a 22-year-old who had high hopes for winning.

“To ask somebody if they are disappointed, how foolish is that question?” Brown said. “There was a lot made about Vince’s reaction. I thought it was an honest one and wasn’t a political one.”