Taking a Run at the Heisman

By Kip Carlson

	In three years, Simonton has been named to numerous all-conference and All-America teams. Is football’s Heisman Trophy next? Simonton will have three nationally televised chances to show the rest of the nation his extraordinary talent.

They were the first to know, those people down in the north end zone of Reser Stadium.

Early in the 1999 football season, a sign reading "Heismonton #35" began appearing during each Oregon State home game, taped to the wall of the Valley Football Center. At the time, the thought seemed a flight of fancy: Ken Simonton? The Heisman Trophy?

That was a couple thousand yards and who-knows-how-many juked defenders ago. Now, there’s a very real chance for the Beaver running back to grab college football’s most prestigious honor. The senior from Pittsburg, Calif., has already gained national notice and positioned himself to become OSU’s second Heisman winner, joining Terry Baker (1962).

Simonton goes into his final season with a chance to become just the fifth player in NCAA Division I-A history to rush for 1,000 yards in each of his four seasons. He’s already the first player in Pacific-10 history to rush for at least 1,000 yards as a freshman, sophomore and junior.

Simonton’s 4,073 career rushing yards are an OSU school record, and they rank fifth on the list of all-time Pac-10 leaders; he has a chance to move as high as second by the end of this fall. His 312 career points are a school record and rank ninth all-time in the Pac-10. He’s been named to numerous all-conference and All-America teams, and he finished ninth in the Heisman voting last season.

"He’s at least a top-five contender," said Tom Deinhart, who covers college football for The Sporting News. "I think the biggest key for him to win it is for Oregon State to have another season almost like last year, if not a perfect season.

"It will take a big season by OSU, and he has to post some eye-popping numbers. It also helps to have big games on TV and maybe a ‘Heisman moment’ — like a memorable 80-yard run late in a game to win, a run that keeps getting replayed on Saturdays."

Simonton will have three nationally televised chances to provide that moment, including OSU’s season-opener at Fresno State (ESPN) and the Civil War at Oregon (ABC). He’ll also be the subject of one chapter of ESPN’s "Sports Century" series this fall; he’s already been profiled as an intellectually minded young man in Sports Illustrated last year, made the cover of The Sporting News’ spring football wrapup edition, and been on the cover of numerous preseason publications.

Has the Heisman been a longtime goal for Simonton?

"Without a doubt, if you’re going to play this game, be it a receiver or defensive back, you always have a chance for these kind of prestigious awards," Simonton said. "Just the fact you’re playing the game — you’re always looking at it, who’s going to win and who’s in contention. So it allures you to the game. It just wasn’t a realistic goal in years past for me."

Now, it’s a very realistic goal. And the acclaim Simonton has earned in his first three seasons has been a prelude to this fall’s plans by athletic director Mitch Barnhart and the OSU athletic department.

Oregon State’s athletic department Web site — www.osubeavers.com — will have a Ken Simonton page with photos, statistics, stories and Simonton’s biography. Simonton interviews will be available to media via satellite linkups weekly and after every home game; he’ll also be available to reporters in a conference call every week. A notepad with Simonton on the cover will be sent to members of the media.

OSU sports information director Hal Cowan has been in the business for more than 30 years, and he’s seen what makes campaigns effective.

"Our whole idea, what we need to do, is keep the media in tune with what Ken is doing and make sure we get all the national media all the information we can," Cowan said. "I don’t think you buy a Heisman Trophy with gimmicks — I think you do it with the same kind of honest information that we provide about all our athletes. Everybody across the nation needs to have access to him and the ability to get instantaneous information on him."

Simonton’s accomplishments have already established him in the minds of the national college football media, which eliminates one big hurdle many Heisman hopefuls face.

"Ken Simonton really set the table for himself last year by having a good year, and having people aware of him," said Ivan Maisel, who covers college football for Sports Illustrated. "So much of the Heisman is letting people know who you are. The fact is, I don’t think he needs a billboard across from Madison Square Garden."

That was a reference to University of Oregon boosters footing a bill of approximately $250,000 for a building-size likeness of Duck quarterback Joey Harrington in New York City this summer.

"I don’t know if that’s necessary," The Sporting News’ Deinhart said of the gimmickry some schools utilize. "Sometimes the heavier promotional things turn people off, to be honest. It comes down to something as simple as having the numbers — Andre Ware with Houston in 1989, he had no games on TV but he put up huge numbers. It’s having the numbers. You don’t have to be too heavily concerned with heavy promotion — subtle reminders to the media do the trick. The big, flashy, things sometimes aren’t as effective as you might think."

One thing OSU will draw on is its previous Heisman winner. Baker and Simonton were brought together for a photo shoot in June, a meeting that Simonton enjoyed.

"He really represents opportunity," Simonton said of Baker. "In school, as well as on the field, what I’m doing allows me a great opportunity to see other things, to do other things. Baker’s career as a player, as well as in the business field, demonstrates what opportunites might be available to me."

Photo shoots, round after round of interviews on top of practices, team meetings, going to class and studying — is this whole Heisman candidate thing fun?

"It’s always fun, because I’m really not focused on it," Simonton said. "This is my last year, so I just want to go out with a bang anyway. I’m excited, and looking forward to doing the work that’s necessary to go out and dominate this year. That’s my biggest thing — it’s not the awards, it’s the actual domination. Whether that warrants me the award, that’s fine. If not, I’d definitely love a trip to the studio (for the awards show as a finalist). If not, I’m going to dominate anyway."

As noted by Deinhart, just as important as Simonton dominating games as an individual, will be Oregon State dominating games as a team. That’s a position OSU head coach Dennis Erickson wholeheartedly agrees with.

"A-number-one is the team," Erickson said. "There’s no question that you’ve got to win games. Then, the thing that Ken has going for him is if he can gain 1,000 yards four years in a row in the Pac-10 — that’s something nobody’s ever done — that will be a real important thing as far as he’s concerned. But it’s not going to affect how I play him or Patrick McCall at all."

So you won’t see McCall — OSU’s other outstanding senior running back — benched to get Simonton a few more yards in his Heisman quest. Erickson, who coached quarterback Gino Torretta in a Heisman-winning season at Miami in 1992, said having a candidate for the award really doesn’t affect how he goes about his job.

"I don’t have to spend any more time than I normally would," Erickson said. "The bottom line for us is he won’t even be a contender if we don’t win, so we’ve got to do whatever it takes to win."

From a distance, Deinhart and Maisel see what’s working for Simonton and what’s working against him.

"The biggest thing working for him is the fact he’s playing for a top-five team and is the offensive cornerstone of a top-five team," Maisel said. "The biggest thing working against him is, because of the weakness of Oregon State’s non-conference schedule, no one is going to pay much attention to what he does until the Pac-10 schedule kicks in."

That may have been remedied a bit when the Beavers’ season-opener was moved to a Sunday night for national broadcast.

"In his favor are things like name recognition and past performance," Deinhart said. "I think working against him is the dreaded West Coast disadvantage. Some games on Saturday nights aren’t over until after midnight (Eastern time); they don’t make the paper, people have gone to bed and they don’t see the highlights."

That’s where the satellite feeds and other electronic methods of distributing information to the media come into play. And the technology available means playing in a small city like Corvallis isn’t likely to be a disadvantage; neither is playing at Oregon State, which hadn’t been given much thought as a football school for decades until last season.

"I don’t think playing at an Oregon State is a disadvantage," Deinhart said. "The last few years, Marshall has had people — Chad Pennington, Randy Moss — make it to the Heisman ceremony. The winner can come from any school as long as you’ve got the numbers and got some highlights."

Even if Simonton’s bid comes up short, Oregon State will benefit from his effort in the long run.

"This gives our program exposure, and that’s what it’s all about," Erickson said. "It will help us in recruiting and it will help the university because Oregon State is out there all the time. That’s the biggest thing it will do for all of us."