The Kid Becomes a (Heis)Man

DALLAS —  Requiring one more credit to complete a successful junior season, Cade McNown bit hard on his mouthpiece Thursday and got it.

The UCLA quarterback with the wonder arm and fearless feet needed to show the football world something far more important and rare, something resembling a heart.

By the time the shadows had fallen in front of a hostile crowd in a chilly old Texas stadium, the football world had gotten an eyeful.

Trailing Texas A&M;, 16-0, with 42 seconds remaining in the half of the Cotton Bowl, McNown stepped into a UCLA huddle filled with chattering, worried teammates and cocked his head.

He had been battered, smothered in the end zone, watched passes dropped and thrown an interception.

He wanted to scream. Instead, he told everyone to shut up.

“Talk is cheap,” he said. “Let’s just score.”

Just 31 minutes later in playing time, the Bruins had scored, and scored, and scored, and scored. McNown had thrown for two touchdowns, run for another, booted a surprise 76-yard punt and been named offensive MVP of the Bruins’ 29-23 victory.

Not to mention, fulfilled a directive from a boss.

“I told Cade at halftime, now we’re really going to find out whether you are really a Heisman candidate,” said Al Borges, UCLA offensive coordinator. “Well, I think we did.”

In his three years at UCLA, he has won with 400 yards passing, won with five touchdown passes, won by completing 70% of his passes.

He can now say he has won a bowl game from his back.

Cade McNown, Heisman Trophy candidate.

One can now say that makes sense.

“I remember when Cade first came here, he used to throw some of the most gawd-awful rocks,” UCLA receiver Jim McElroy said with a laugh. “Guys were saying they wished we had another quarterback.”

Those were the days of seven-for-19 passing with three interceptions at Washington . . . eight-for-27 passing with three interceptions at Michigan . . . three interceptions and a failed comeback at Stanford.

Thursday was the day for . . . well, just ask McElroy.

At the end of McNown’s talk-is-cheap drive, with 10 seconds remaining in the half, he called a play for McElroy to run across the middle of the end zone.

When they lined up and saw Texas A&M; in a defensive formation that would make that impossible, both of them adjusted on the fly. McElroy ran to the outside. McNown threw to the outside.

The result was a 22-yard touchdown pass that, with an extra point, closed the gap to 16-7 at halftime.

“Last year, I would never make book that would happen,” Borges said. “No way.”

Everywhere Thursday were signs that the quarterback somebody once wrote belonged on a playground--well, he did--is ready for richer pastures.

“If he’s not the leading Heisman Trophy candidate, then I’d like to see the one who is,” UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said.

McNown heard this and shrugged. There is the sense that he could hear Toledo pronounce him as a leading Miss America candidate and he would shrug.

McNown begins the new year with only one thing missing from his Heisman candidate portfolio, that being the swagger.

He looks like a star quarterback with streaks of eye black and assertive gestures toward teammates and the ability to do wondrous things while being pulled to the ground by his shirt.

But he talks like a walk-on. His voice is plain, measured. He gives credit to teammates. He professes undying servitude to coaches despite their animated sideline discussions.

“They call the plays, I run them, I only give my input when asked,” he said.

While returning to the locker room after a TV interview Thursday, he even held the door for reporters.

“I’m trying to win games, not trophies, seriously,” he said. “I’m not afraid of the Heisman . . . but that is the farthest thing from my mind.”

Some teammates were thinking of little else after Thursday’s fourth quarter, when McNown drove the team 71 yards in eight plays for the winning touchdown with 7:05 remaining.

It was his first fourth-quarter comeback drive this season, leading him to say, “Isn’t that what you are supposed to do? Take the ball and score? It’s not like it was an unbelievable thing.”

Well, perhaps not, but the crowd was screaming and a rusher was in his face when he earned the drive’s initial first down on a five-yard pass to Brian Poli-Dixon.

He completed a third-down pass to McElroy for 11 yards later in the drive, then it was his superb fake to Skip Hicks that allowed Ryan Neufeld to run untouched into the end zone for the winning score.

If he went crazy celebrating, nobody noticed.

“He is so calm in the huddle, just telling us what to do, no panicking or anything,” senior tackle Chad Overhauser said. “I’d love to be watching him next year. In fact, I will be watching him next year, no matter where I’m at.”

From now until Sept. 12, when the Bruins open at home against Texas and possibly another Heisman candidate if running back Ricky Williams stays in school, it is UCLA’s job to make sure everyone is watching McNown.

The sports information department will soon be firing up the copying machine, licking the envelopes, hauling out the hype.

He won’t win the Heisman with mere numbers--”Our offensive scheme is too balanced for that,” he said.

He probably won’t win it with an undefeated season--the Bruins lose eight defensive starters, Hicks, McElroy, and two offensive linemen.

He can win it, however, with a good statistical season, another 10-2 record, and more big-game heroics like Thursday’s.

He can win by remaining the same player who, late Thursday, tugged on a faded blue UCLA baseball cap and addressed bystanders as if he were back in that huddle.

“Talk,” said a young man suddenly staring at riches, “is cheap.”