by Trevor Freeman
Let me throw some numbers at you:
Quarterback A: 66.4% completion percentage on 318 attempts, 3,017 yards, 23 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 5 rushing touchdowns, 32 straight victories. Best wins were at the #6 ranked team in the country and at the #10 ranked team in the country.
Quarterback B: 63.5% completion percentage on 244 attempts, 2,414 yards, 22 touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 8 rushing touchdowns, 16 straight victories. Best wins were at the #9 ranked team in the country and at home against the #21 ranked team in the country.
On the surface, this is a no-brainer. Quarterback A has the better passer numbers against tougher competition. He has also been present and accounted for during 32 straight victories by his team. So what if I told you Quarterback B is considered the favorite for the Heisman Trophy. You would probably be wearing the same look that Jason from Laguna Beach had when he realized Lauren saw him cheating on her. Well, that’s what happening to Matt Leinart right now at USC and I think it is pretty ridiculous that the voters are handing Vince Young the Heisman over him.
Right now, the reasons for not awarding Matt Leinart the Heisman Trophy fall under a category I like to call “Tim Duncanitis”. It is fitting that Leinart would suffer from this since he was the most high-profile athlete to stay in school since Duncan opted to return for his senior year at Wake Forest. The definition of “Tim Duncanitis” is when the media and followers of a sport make arguments that other players are best, because they just don’t want to state the obvious. In Tim Duncan’s case, pundits love to predict LeBron James or Dwyane Wade to be the MVP/Best Player in basketball even though it’s painfully clear to every rational human being watching hoops that the best player is indeed Duncan. This is why Tim Duncan has only won two MVP’s.
In Leinart’s case, it is unbelievable how he is being held to a higher standard. Would you believe me if I told you Leinart is having a better year statistically than he did in last season’s Heisman campaign? In every category, Leinart has been superior when comparing this year to last year. Not only that, it has been against better competition. Oregon at Autzen and Notre Dame in South Bend were both bigger land mines than he faced during the regular season of 2004.
So why all the support for Vince Young? What gives? I think the love for Vince Young is the same love given to LeBron James in hoops. Out with the old and in with the new. The American sports media has always rushed to crown new heroes and that is the reason for Vince Young’s surge in the Heisman balloting. Why do I say that? Because it has to be. Vince Young’s numbers and the quality of his opposition do not stack up.
The two toughest games Vince Young has played this year were against The Ohio State University and Texas Tech (a team widely considered to be overrated with possibly the worst defense west of the Mississippi River). In those two games, Vince Young put up the following numbers:
At Ohio State 18-29 270 yards 2 TD’s 2 INT’s 76 rushing yards
Texas Tech 12-22 239 yards 2 TD’s 2 INT’s 45 rushing yards
So in essence, Vince Young in the ONLY two games he has played in against ranked opponents was mediocre at best. And yet, Vince Young is the Heisman frontrunner and Matt Leinart is the afterthought. Vince Young is God’s gift to quarterbacking and Matt Leinart is but a mere shell of himself from last year. In case you don’t know, fraud is spelled F-R-A-U-D…………
USC closes out the season with Fresno State and UCLA. Two big-time teams, both ranked in the top 20. Texas finishes off with two more weak sisters out of the “Small 12”. Remember those Vince Young stats I posted above, and watch the way Leinart plays in these final two games. If Leinart performs substantially better……….which he will….ask yourself why his quest for a Heisman repeat has been downgraded.
The Heisman Trophy isn’t decided in this fashion, but I think the following would be a great way to make a decision. If you were down to your last five dollars and you needed a quarterback to get you down the field in the final two minutes of a game, who would it be? Give me the guy who called that audible against Notre Dame any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
13 replies on “Is Matt Leinart suffering from "Tim Duncanitis"”
Vince Young The reason I think that people may vote for Vince Young is that if you compare the Longorns offensive players to the Trjans offensive players, USC has many more play makers that surround Leinart. USC has Reggie Bush, LenDale White, and Dwayne Jarrett. Vince Young on the other hand basically is the Texas Longorns only big man on offense. Young has some pretty good passing stats (not as good as Leinart’s) and also leads his team in rushing. I am not saying that Young should get the Heisman over Leinart, and I am not saying that Leinart should get the Heisman over Young. But I think that each player could make a case for themselves.
comment I agree with Young (the user not Vince young) in what he said about both Vince Young and Matt Leinart. But Trevor you fail to mention the rushing yards by both of them and then you should take the total yards into account. I’m not positive but I think Vince Young has more total yards than Leaniart has. Laguna Beach dude?! Are you asking to be made fun of! And are you kidding me with your last comment about someone bringing you down the field? I’d NO DOUBT pick Vince Young! Does the word Rose bowl mean anything to you! He’s had way more last minute-winning drives than Leinart and if the “Bush Push” doesn’t happen USC loses that game! Laguna Bech man! wow.
Leinart vs. Young You’re not honestly going to argue that you would take Vince Young in the clutch over Matt Leinart. Vince Young has lost a clutch game……..to Oklahoma last year. Matt Leinart has never lost an important contest.
Would Vince Young audible out of a play on 4th and 7 and go deep? No way. The only other quarterbacks in America who call that audbile are currently collecting NFL paychecks.
I knew I was chancing it with Laguna Beach reference, but I figured I’d go for it. I was hoping for the tie-in which is that Leinart used to date the girl who narrates the show.
I will give you props for mentioning it and going deep into the plot but in all seriousness I would take Vince over Leinart and the loss last year to Oklahoma wasn’t his fault. It was a gutsy call by Leinart I’ll give you that but the two have different styles. Whether it’s running or throwing I think Yolung would have gotten the first down on that play too. By the way the new Laguna Beach is on at 10:00 tonight :). Did he really date that girl?
Oh yeah. Leinart pimped Kristin from Laguna Beach and Alyssa Milano (major props for that considering she’s thirteen years older than him). Not sure who else, but let’s just say he’s hoping they move an NFL franchise into Los Angeles sooner rather than later.
that’s pretty awsome he went out with that girl Kristin. I guess he’s got another one now, she’s on the basketball team on USC or something. I read about it in ESPN magazine. Go Boston U terriers :)!
The one on the USC hoops team…. Isn’t too shabby either. Matt Leinart does some good work both on and off the field.
Watching the Duke-Boston University game right now. It’s not quite an a$$ kicking yet, but it’s on the verge.
OK… now that you girls are done talking about Laguna Beach (just kidding)…Back to the Heisman argument. I’d take Leinart ANYDAY over Young in a last minute situation. Nothing against Young, he’s a hell of an athlete. But, he is overrated. Sure, he can run, he makes plays, he leads the Texas team. But, it’s really because he’s just extremely athletic. Let’s see him go to work against USC in the Rose Bowl and then we’ll see how good he is. Anyway, can you say NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP two years in a row?? I’d say that’s slightly better than winning last year’s Rose Bowl. Also, in that game against Baylor, or whoever that last ‘good’ team Texas played was, all three of his TD passes were underthrown and the receivers had to make great comeback routes to catch it, and then they broke away for the TD’s. So anyone that said he showed the strength of his arm, and the other part of his game besides running needs to take a look at the game tape again.
Future… For some reason I have this vision of Matt Leinert winning a Super Bowl as a quarterback while all the guys on NFL Countdown talk about how great Vince Young would be if he moved to wide reciever.
I have the same vision……. ………and I’m willing to bet 75% of all NFL GMs do as well.
love this article and I don’t even follow college football closely.
The comments in this thread are great too. Exactly what I imagined for SC: good arguments, random throw ins about pop culture, men calling each other girls. 🙂
Great… This is one of my favorite articles I have ever read on this site. I actually used “Tim Duncanitis” in my vocabulary now. Kind of like the “Ewing Theory.”
Matt Leinhart — Pure and simple..Matt Leinhart is just overrated. He didn’t turn pro last year because he knew he wouldn’t make it, and he wanted to stay in school one more year so he could continue to get the Royal treatment from the coaching staff and all the young girls there drowling over him. Leinhart shouldn’t have won the Heisman last year and Reggie Bush shouldn’t have won it this year. Too much emphasis is put on a player’s over inflated 40 yard dash time and that’s the reason why Bush won it this year. Some claim this guy runs a 4.25 in the 40 and i say this…”Bull” I don’t think there’s anyone be it College or NFL can run that fast, that kid is more like a true 4.5 or something of that nature….Vince Young proved to everyone who saw that game on Jan 4th who should have won the Heisman. It was no contest. USC defense couldn’t stop most High School teams and Vince totally rapped them. Give Vince credit. He’s probably the most gifted player to ever play the game