Jan 9, 2009 - 3:52 AM
0 shoutsBy Zachary Ingraham PA SportsTicker Staff Writer
Every college football player dreams of winning the Heisman Trophy. They just might not want to take it into the national championship game.
Sam Bradford was the latest victim of the Heisman jinx, suffering through one of the worst performances in his collegiate career as top-ranked Oklahoma fell to No. 2 Florida, 24-14, in Thursday's BCS championship game.
"Obviously, it's very disappointing to end the season on a loss, especially in a game that we felt like we had a chance to win," Bradford said. "In the first half, we squandered some opportunities to score points that really hurt. But in the second half when we needed to make plays, we just couldn't do it."
The redshirt sophomore joined an impressive list of players that took home the individual honor but failed to win the top prize the next month.
Since the BCS system was put in place in 1998, Southern California's Matt Leinart is the only player to win the Heisman and the national championship in the same season.
Florida State's Chris Weinke, Nebraska's Eric Crouch, Oklahoma's Jason White, USC's Reggie Bush and Ohio State's Troy Smith were all victimized by the Heisman spell, having sub-par performances - for the most part - during a title game loss.
Bradford, who received college football's most coveted award last month, passed for 251 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions Thursday as the Sooners were held to their lowest single-game point total in over 15 months.
"They're a great defense, and I don't know if it's one thing that they did," Bradford said. "I think there were a couple times where we got ourselves in trouble by getting ourselves behind the chains, forcing ourselves into bad situations."
The Oklahoma offense rarely resembled the squad that racked up an NCAA-record 702 points before this one - including at least 60 points in each of their previous five contests.
Bradford failed to connected on the big pass play that has been a staple of the Sooners' campaign. It was the first time all season that Bradford did not have a pass play of 30-or-more yards.
"He's a dynamic quarterback," Gators linebacker Brandon Spikes said. "We knew he was going to do a good job getting those guys ready. And we just wanted to get our defense out there and contained. And I think we did a great job."
"It certainly was because everybody was looking at him to do exactly what he was doing the whole season, putting up big stats, putting up those big numbers," cornerback Joe Haden added. "We knew he was going to go out and throw the ball deep. We just had to play technique, do our job in the secondary and that's what we did."
Leaving New York empty-handed in December appears to provide some incentive - just ask Tim Tebow, who was a Heisman finalist this year after winning the award in 2007.
"I try to use anything I can as motivation," Tebow said. "I think every player does. You try to use that, everything they said, just everything as motivation."
Tebow joined Texas' Vince Young, Miami's Ken Dorsey and Oklahoma's Josh Heupel as players who came up short at the Heisman ceremony but still led their team to the championship after New Year's.
Not a bad consolation prize.
