Chasing Heisman with an Arm and a Prayer

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Quarterback must lead Wildcats to good record

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Junior quarterback Tim Couch is an early contender for the Heisman Trophy, but he's more concerned about winning games for UK. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

The Heisman Trophy and professional football generally mix about as well as barbecue sauce and fudge ripple ice cream, but Tim Couch will get a full serving of each in the weeks ahead.

He will try to play football, which is about watching film and getting reps and, for him more than most anyone, throwing passes. But he knows the touchdowns he throws and the games he helps Kentucky to win will often be brushed aside by a sporting media more interested in those two issues:

Will he win the Heisman?

Will this be his last chance to do so, seeing as how there's another NFL draft in April?

This is the 1-2 punch applied by reporters to most of the best underclassmen in the college game, of which Couch, a 6-foot-5 junior quarterback, is one. Learning to deal with it is as much a part of their preseason preparation as training table and two-a-days.

The NFL thing is easy. It can wait, and it will, no matter how much Couch is bothered about it.

"Anytime I meet new people, they always want to know if I'm going to come back to Kentucky next year or go to the NFL," Couch said. "It's going to be a tough decision."

But he'll make it later.

The Heisman deal is tougher to tame, and it will obscure the other issue if Couch has a few good weeks.

"Tim is so level-headed and loves the game of football so much, I don't think it creates a problem," said Kentucky coach Hal Mumme.

If this is the case, he is blessed even more than Couch's powerful arm and astonishing precision would indicate.

It is not easy to remain focused on the football season when every week there is talk of an individual award that has come to be the most prestigious in sports.

"Obviously," Mumme said, "if you had a guy who was real self- centered or something, you'd have to work at not letting him get a big head. But guys like that aren't going to be able to play quarterback for us. It's kind of a moot point."

Although he put up such phenomenal numbers as a sophomore -- completing 363-of-547 passes for 3,884 yards and 37 touchdowns -- Couch has not been getting the preseason Heisman push that might have been anticipated.

Texas tailback Ricky Williams, who rushed for 1,893 yards but couldn't prevent the Longhorns from losing seven games, is considered the favorite.

Both The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated selected Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper as their All-American quarterback. ESPN analyst Lee Corso also likes Culpepper more than Couch, but says the best quarterback in college is UCLA lefty Cade McNown.

This does not matter so much to Couch. He dreamed of being a player good enough to be considered for the Heisman. He's already had that. But he recognizes the vagaries of the campaign and balloting process.

I don't think it's really a goal," Couch said.

"I think I'm just going to approach it that I'm going to go out and play, and if I get the award, I'll accept it with honor and really cherish it. But if I don't, I think my career is going to go on the same, and I'm not going to look back at it and worry."

When his name began showing up on "Heisman Watch" lists in newspapers and on television sports shows last season, Couch was given a first-hand look at how capricious the process generally is. One bad week statistically can severely damage a player's chances, even if that performance was necessary to achieve victory.

Couch wasn't really a serious contender last year, because no Southeastern Conference quarterback was likely to win ahead of Tennessee's Peyton Manning, but it gave him a chance to see what he might experience this year.

"I was aware of the pressures those guys would go through," Couch said. "It seemed like if they had one bad game, it would cancel them out. I thought that was a pretty tough deal. When you're mentioned for the Heisman, you're kind of living in a fish bowl.

"It kind of reminds me of the Vanderbilt game. Nobody puts up big numbers against Vanderbilt, really. I didn't put up the best numbers, only threw one touchdown, but we won."

The difficulty of competing in the Southeastern Conference has been one factor preventing the league from producing more than one winner since 1985.

Danny Wuerffel of Florida won it in 1996, but such outstanding players as Alabama's David Palmer, Tennessee's Heath Shuler and Georgia's Garrison Hearst fell short.

Kentucky has not really been a factor in recent Heisman history. Couch's ninth-place finish last season was the first top 10 placement in 40 years for a Wildcats player. The highest-ever finish was Babe Parilli's third place in 1951.

One thing about the Heisman as regards Couch is that if he wakes up in December and that trophy is sitting on his nightstand -- one bronze arm cradling a football, the other extending to ward off defenders and provide a good place for the winner to get a grip -- Kentucky will most certainly have accomplished all it wishes as a team.

The Heisman does not go to a loser. It happened once, for Notre Dame's Paul Hornung back in 1956, but in the 1990s it has invariably been presented to players from outstanding teams.

"It's an individual award that's generated by great team success," Mumme said. "I don't think you can win it without the team winning big. I don't think you can campaign for it."

Three of the past five winners (Charlie Ward, 1993; Danny Wuerffel, 1996 and Charles Woodson, 1997) played for national champions. A Kentucky team that went 9-2 would have achieved far greater progress than a Michigan or Florida team that won it all, but would voters recognize the difference?

"That'd be the best thing about it," said Couch.If I win the thing, I'll probably have a bowl ring to go along with it."