Bradford wins close Heisman race

NEW YORK —  The first person to congratulate Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford was the player who won it last year -- Tim Tebow.

The star quarterbacks from the top two teams in the country shook hands Saturday night, then embraced.

On Jan. 8, with the national championship on the line, it won’t be so cordial.

Bradford, Oklahoma’s amazingly accurate and quick-thinking passer, won the Heisman after leading the highest-scoring team in major-college history to the BCS title game.

A year after Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman, Bradford became the second and kept the Florida star from joining Archie Griffin as a two-time winner.

When Bradford and the No. 2 Sooners (12-1) face Tebow and the No. 1 Gators (12-1) in South Florida, it will mark the second time Heisman winners will play against each other. The first was in the 2005 Orange Bowl, when ’04 winner Matt Leinart and USC beat ’03 winner Jason White and Oklahoma for the national title.

Bradford, who led the nation in touchdown passes with 48, received 1,726 points. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy was second with 1,604, and Tebow -- who got the most first-place votes -- was third with 1,575.

“I was definitely surprised and I think it’s everything I imagined,” Bradford said. “I think it will take a couple weeks to set in.”

Bradford got 300 first-place votes, McCoy 266 and Tebow 309. Not since 1956 had a player drawn the most first-place votes and finished third, when Tommy McDonald of Oklahoma did. Bradford was the third player to win without receiving the most first-place votes, joining Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung in ’56 and Oklahoma’s Billy Sims in 1978.

It was the closest margin between the top two since Nebraska’s Eric Crouch edged Florida’s Rex Grossman by 62 points in 2001.

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Bowled over

The last five non-USC Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks in bowl games:

*--* Year Player, School Result 2008 Sam Bradford, Oklahoma ? 2007 Tim Tebow, Florida Lost in Capital One Bowl 2006 Troy Smith, Ohio State Lost in BCS championship 2003 Jason White, Oklahoma Lost in Sugar Bowl (for BCS title) 2001 Eric Crouch, Nebraska Lost in Rose Bowl (for BCS title) *--*