Monday, August 17, 1998
Heisman Hype
MCNOWN: UCLA pushes quarterback McNown into spotlight
By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Staff
As the college football season rapidly approaches, coaches,
players and fans are anticipating the start of the big race. Not
the race for the Pac-10 crown or the race for the Rose Bowl. It’s
the contest to see who is left holding the revered trophy when the
smoke finally clears.
Hello, Mr. Heisman.
The Heisman trophy, awarded annually in December to college
football’s best player, is voted on by a panel of roughly 900 media
members. Members, whose identities are kept secret, are inundated
every year with Heisman propaganda from sports information
directors across the country.
The competition by athletic departments to get the most
effective promotional materials out to those who decide the Heisman
trophy winner begins in the new season’s infancy. It has been
decades since UCLA has had a bona fide contender for the Heisman,
but this year, many experts say quarterback Cade McNown has a
legitimate shot.
The athletic department has been working day and night to keep
the hype machine in full swing. However, McNown did not build his
reputation on hype.
"I can’t imagine anyone being more valuable to the team than
Cade is to us," said head coach Bob Toledo. "He has the complete
package. He possesses a strong arm, quick feet and outstanding
leadership qualities.
"He knows the offense like a coach and has developed a comfort
level with our system. But, above all else, he is driven to
succeed."
The attributes mentioned by Toledo are merely enough to get a
player into the running. Being a talented football player is
important, but to be a serious candidate, athletic departments have
to do everything short of going to war for their Heisman contender,
all the while making sure that the hype doesn’t affect the team as
a whole.
Marc Dellins, head of the UCLA Sports Information Department, is
the man in charge of making sure that McNown is, as he puts it, "as
recognizable as any player in the country." From his office in the
Morgan Center, Dellins coordinates the Heisman campaign through as
many mediums as one can imagine.
McNown is featured in brochures, magazines, videos, radio and
television shows, newspapers and even on the World Wide Web. Since
nobody knows exactly who is on the list of Heisman voters, Dellins
selects approximately 500 members of the media whom he believes
have the best chance of being on the panel to the mailing list.
Those people receive a brochure and three-minute video set to
music, which include some of McNown’s recent highlights and quotes
about him from some of the coaches he has played against. Updates
of McNown’s stats and more highlights are mailed periodically
throughout the year.
Dellins organizes the campaign regionally, first making sure
that voters in the East, South and Midwest who might not normally
get to see McNown in action, get even more attention; then he
involves Pac-10 and West Coast voters. Dellins sees to it that
panel members know as much about McNown’s class and leadership as
they do about his statistics and athletic ability.
As Coach Toledo put it, "(McNown) is an extremely competitive
person who is always looking for a way to improve, whether it be
working out with his teammates or watching video by the hour."
Along with sending out the UCLA-produced brochure and video,
information director Dellins plans several radio and television
interviews during the week. Dellins has even engineered a
conference phone setup which allows up to 25 media members to talk
to McNown at the same time during a post-game press conference.
The operation started months ago, during the break between the
final regular season win against Southern Cal and the nationally
televised Cotton Bowl game versus Texas A&M. McNown was
featured by ABC television as one of next year’s Heisman favorites
during its promotion of the New Year’s Day Cotton Bowl game.
Dellins also helped arrange a focus on McNown as a Heisman trophy
candidate in Sports Illustrated’s upcoming College Football Preview
issue.
The public relations machine isn’t limited to the print media,
however. UCLA’s official athletic internet site,
www.uclabruins.com, is highlighted by a picture of McNown that,
when clicked on, leads to an entire page devoted to Cade McNown –
the Heisman trophy candidate. Viewers can easily access McNown’s
preseason honors, current statistics, statistics from the past
three seasons, McNown in high school and even some personal
information. The web page will be updated after each game to make
sure that McNown’s most recent totals are available.
Readers of the Los Angeles Times and other sports sections are
already familiar with prominent ads that advertise "Heis-mania"
over an action shot of McNown poised to launch a bomb.
Care must also be taken to make sure that a Heisman trophy
hopeful is not overexposed. Tennessee officials tried hard last
year to make sure that their promotion of eventual runner-up Peyton
Manning did not grow to be overwhelming. Publicity for McNown will
most likely not become excessive, as some say Manning’s did,
because Dellins plans to spend a total of less than $10,000 on the
entire campaign.
The "Cade campaign," according to Dellins, is both simple and
aggressive. The primary theme of the campaign is to focus on
McNown’s winning ability. Dellins believes that winning games, not
individual statistics, will be the most important factor in
deciding who ends up with the Heisman. McNown couldn’t agree
more.
McNown said in a recent television interview, "If you look at
the winner, it’s always who’s got the great team."
Dellins works personally with McNown to make sure that his
Heisman promotion does not interfere with McNown’s academic or
athletic schedule. During the football season, interviews are
restricted to the Monday and Tuesday afternoons following a
game.
All the Heisman hype can go to a player’s head, but McNown
appears to have kept everything in perspective. According to
Dellins, working with him is a pleasure. He says that McNown is
very cooperative and makes the sports information director’s job
easier by consistently impressing interviewers with his candor and
exceptional speaking ability.
McNown maintains that winning the Heisman trophy is not really a
goal for him. The only real goal for the season is a Fiesta Bowl
National Championship victory.
"I’m running a Rose Bowl campaign, not a Heisman campaign,"
McNown says. "I’m worried about the team aspect. If I was into
individual awards, I would have played golf or tennis."
The UCLA offensive line might want the award for McNown more
than McNown does. Returning starter Andy Meyers lists getting
McNown the Heisman fourth in importance this season. "(Our
priorities are) not getting Cade killed, allowing zero sacks and
amassing a lot of rush yardage," he said. "Then we’ll worry about
the Heisman."
If McNown manages to take home the Heisman hardware, he will
join 1967 award-winner Gary Beban as only the second Bruin to
capture the prize as the nation’s top player. Recent UCLA football
players who earned attention as candidates include Skip Hicks last
year, Sharmon Shah during the 1995 campaign, J.J. Stokes in 1994
and Troy Aikman back in 1988.
McNown, who finished eighth in last year’s Heisman balloting,
has already been installed as the preseason front-runner by the
likes of Athlon Sports Magazine and Football News. His competition
in the Heisman race will be fierce, and the Bruin schedule this
year includes at least two head-to- head meetings with other
Heisman trophy contenders.
Rickey Williams, the big, bruising running back from Texas and a
also a leading returning vote-getter, would like nothing better
than to steal the spotlight from McNown during the season opening
game at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 12.
On Nov. 14, McNown and the rest of the team travel into Seattle
to do battle with quarterback Brock Huard and the Washington
Huskies.
Running back Kevin Faulk of LSU heads the list of remaining
Heisman trophy hopefuls, followed by linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer of
Ohio State, quarterbacks Tim Couch and Donovan McNabb of Kentucky
and Syracuse respectively, West Virginia running back Amos Zeroue
and Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne.
No matter who ends up clutching the trophy at season’s end, it
can be assured that they’ve had their entire athletic department
behind them all the way. Ultimately, the true test for the
candidates will be surviving the rigors of Heismania.
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
UCLA quarterback Cade McNown is a promising candidate for the
Heisman trophy this year.