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'You never know' Four QBs hope for Heisman upset
Posted: Friday December 10, 1999 06:55 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- On the day before the Heisman Trophy winner was announced, Ron Dayne and the other four finalists took Manhattan -- by bus. An early evening bus tour of midtown included a scheduled visit to the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, a cruise along Fifth Avenue and a burger at a Broadway eatery. Then it was back to the Downtown Athletic Club, home of the Heisman, for a nervous night before Saturday's nationally-televised Heisman presentation. "We wanted to give them a feel for New York, a feel for the holiday season before the award show,' Sean Ingram of the DAC said. Dayne, Wisconsin's record-setting tailback, may be the acknowledged Heisman favorite, but until the winner is announced, "you never know," says Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton. Hamilton and three other quarterbacks -- Purdue's Drew Brees, Marshall's Chad Pennington and Virginia Tech's Michael Vick join Dayne as the finalists. The 5-foot-10, 254-pound Dayne broke Ricky Williams' Division I-A career rushing record. He ran for 1,834 yards and 19 touchdowns in leading the Badgers (9-2) to the Big Ten Conference title and a Rose Bowl berth. Even Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson is certain Dayne will win the Heisman. Thompson declared Saturday "Ron Dayne Day" in the state. "Ron Dayne is the class of college football -- not just for his accomplishments on the field but for the classy person he is off the field," Thompson said. There's more to Dayne than his running. Divorce and drugs tore apart his family when he was 15, and he went to live with an aunt and uncle, Debbie and Rob Reid, in Berlin, N.J. His life stabilized and he was heavily recruited out of Overbrook High School in Pine Bluff, N.J. Most recruiters wanted him as a fullback, but Dayne insisted on playing tailback. Wisconsin agreed, and he ran for more than 2,000 yards as a freshman. "I don't think that you can ever look at a high school player on film and predict that he's going to have the numbers or the success that Ron had," Badgers coach Barry Alvarez said. "You just can't project anyone having the numbers that he did. I thought he'd be a player that would fit into our system." In his four seasons at Madison, Dayne broke Williams' year-old record of 6,279 yards by finishing with 6,397 yards. He set the mark on a 31-yard run in the final regular-season game against Iowa. Dayne also became a responsible adult, perhaps a little more quickly than most. He passed up the NFL for another year in Madison primarily to be with his girlfriend, Alia Lester, and their 2-year-old daughter, Jada. Also, his sister, Onya, is a freshman at Wisconsin. Since he's become a dad, he figured it was time to "take everything seriously. "You have somebody looking up to you at all times, watching what you're doing, even trying to copy what you're doing," Dayne said. "It makes you do everything better." The soft-spoken Dayne also has grown more comfortable with his celebrity status. "I didn't really think about being a superstar. I just thought about wanting to play and just getting a chance to show what I had," he said. "Now I'm getting so much attention, and the media ... I enjoy it now. I didn't used to like the attention." Dayne will draw most of the attention on Saturday night. But it won't matter. Win or lose the Heisman, he will be surrounded by those closest to him. "I know my daughter's going to be there, and my sister, and my girl," Dayne said. "As long as they're there ... and my aunt and uncle, and probably my mother. But as long as Jada is there, it'll be good." Last year, Williams won the Heisman over Kansas State's Michael Bishop by 1,563 points -- the fourth-largest margin of victory. Two years ago, Michigan's Charles Woodson was the surprise winner over Peyton Manning by 272 points. The largest Heisman victory was in 1968, when Southern California's O.J. Simpson beat Purdue's Leroy Keyes by 1,750 points. The closest vote was in 1985, when Auburn's Bo Jackson edged Iowa's Chuck Long by 45 points.
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