Been There, Done That

Matt has the weekend off, with USC's enjoying a bye week before the big matchup with California on Oct 9.

This weekend we got to see the other lead candidates, Cedric Benson and Kyle Orton, perform on a stage free of Matt.

The results were solid, but unspecacular.

I watched the entire ND/Purdue game, and came away impressed with Orton, as he made some really good throws and kept the Notre Dame defense off balance. But he didn't blow me away, despite NBC's best effusive efforts.

I titled this post "Been There, Done That", and here's why:

Matt Leinart @ Notre Dame, October 18, 2003:
26-34 (.765!)
351 Yards
4 TD/0 INT
USC 45-Notre Dame 14

Kyle Orton @ Notre Dame, October 2, 2004:
21-31 (.677)
385 Yards
4 TD/0 INT
Purdue 41-Notre Dame 16

Matt did this last year, in just his seventh career start, and just his fourth on the road. In The House That Rockne Built.

Additionally, he didn't benefit from a fluke 97-yard touchdown as happened with Orton's connection with Taylor Stubblefield. Matt also doesn't throw on every down with a very controlled passing game that limits turnovers like Orton does.

That said, it was a very good performance for Orton, he really kept ND's defenders off balance, and exposed their lack of speed and agility. His offensive line did a tremendous job of protecting him on those rare occasions he didn't get rid of the ball right away.

Don't believe the hype... yet. Kyle will have his bad game or two at some point this year. Since his difficult start (8 TD/6 INT, 6 sacks through 4 games) last year, Matt has not had a bad game. His consistency has been remarkable, almost historic. On a "bad" day he throws for 2 touchdowns and 230 yards at a 58% clip.

As for Cedric Benson, he had his usual 180 yard effort (34 carries, 187 yards, 5.5 average), and ran for three short touchdowns (11,5,2) in an easy Texas win over Baylor 44-14.

Ace In The Hole

Purdue's Kyle Orton plays Notre Dame this weekend, in South Bend. Great opportunity for him.

But Matt Leinart has his own matchup with Notre Dame later in the year (November 27) in Los Angeles. He also has a more prominent game in the rematch coming up against Cal next weekend (October 9).

Irony of ironies, the Notre Dame game is (late, great) Anthony Davis day at the Coliseum. You know, the guy who returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown and ran wild over the Irish in perhaps the greatest game in college football history, a game USC won 55-24.

55 unanswered points!

Unfortunately, Heisman voting started a little early that year and many ballots were mailed in before Davis' unreal performance, handing the award over, very controversially, to Ohio State's Archie Griffin.

We are now just over a week away from arguably the game of the year in college football, USC vs. Cal, with all of its intrigue and storylines. One week away!

Trojans Visit USC Childrens' Hospital

The story and many great photos is right here

Of course we knew Matt Leinart would be there. It's not a publicity thing, either. As mentioned here before, he likes kids. He's a big guy with a big heart.

Vote Matt

It's election season.



Matt Does New York

A Day In The Life of Pete Carroll

From the Daily Trojan

An excellent read about a typical day for Pete Carroll and the USC program. The man works 15 hour days! And for you media folks out there, if he's ever cranky, now you know why, look at how much media requests he must deal with in the middle of serious preparation.

here is the link

"8:36 p.m.

The football office has become increasingly quieter during the last few minutes, and Carroll enters the offensive conference room, where he watches the offense in today's practice.

After spending most of his day working on the defensive side, he shows he does know his stuff about the offense while looking at the tapes of today's practice. Carroll precisely breaks down a play, showing how the tight end clears the linebacker out so the motioning receiver has a clear flat. Carroll eyes Leinart's throwing during today's practice, and he is quite impressed.

"That's Matt throwing the way Matt throws," Carroll explains after a perfectly thrown ball by Leinart to a receiver running a corner route"

Because It Looks Cool

The bottom border/banner thing from MattLeinartBlog:



I have no other purpose or motives here. Visually this looks real neat. And I want it on Leinart4Heisman.

Vote-Splitting; The Tale of Matt and Reggie

I may have posted this before. Forgive me if so.

Read this link for Heisman history and how the vote-splitting argument may simply be that, a vacant argument.

We're thrilled with Reggie's swift progress and importance to the USC team. He's from San Diego, like TrojanMan, so we've got home town pride for the guy.

But it looks like he may not be the threat to Matt that everyone is making him out to be.

We shall see. There's still a long season to go.

That said, these next two weeks look pretty important, as Kyle Orton meets Notre Dame in South Bend, Matt Leinart and Aaron Rodgers square off in two weeks, and Cedric Benson and his Horns meet up with Jason White and the Oklahoma Sooners. Talk about some great games! And very important to the Heisman race.

Matt Answers An Email/Kenechi Udeze to Guest

And tells us about what we've all been dying to know... his favorite food/music!

-"My favorite food is Italian, but I don't really have a favorite band. I listen to pretty much all kinds of music, but I think I probably listen to classic rock the most. My favorite song is "Thunderstruck" by AC-DC. I'm not really much of a concert-goer. I think I've been to three concerts in my life--Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson and the Powerhouse concert, which featured mostly rap and hip-hop. Thanks for being my No. 1 fan and fight on!"

From MattLeinartBlog.

Trojans' end Kenechi Udeze (NFL first round to the Minnesota Vikings) will guest blog Thursday.

Scripps-Howard Poll

From HeismanPundit:

Matt Leinart has once again increased his lead in the Scripps-Howard Heisman poll (accurately predicted 15 of last 17 Heisman winners).

Teammate Reggie Bush now makes the list, in 4th place.

I guess this confirms Matt's comeback performance for many of the naysayers out there!

Bush/Leinart '04

Go see EBAY.

There are Bush/Leinart '04 T-Shirts selling on E-Bay, I'm not behind them, but am highly amused. I've seen them since at least last year, and there's a picture out there of one making the LA Times front page picture during the Rose Bowl on Matt's winning touchdown reception.

Here's the logo for the shirt:



Clearly USC fans anticipated this ticket in advance. Nice work.

That said, Matt's The Candidate for now, we're happy to let Reggie continue to be The President. Winners all around.

"Hit the Showers, Kid"

Collegefootballnews.com's Matthew Zemek had a rough saturday. He had this to say about Matt Leinart:

"it should be noted that Matt Leinart--perhaps because of the tendonitis in his left elbow, perhaps because of a still-struggling receiving corps, and very probably a little bit of both factors--is not fully right. It was alarmingly noticeable that on short passes--screens, flat passes and drag routes across the short-middle area of the field--Leinart had a very tough time being accurate.

Part of this was due to Stanford pressure, but on several plays, it was clear that Leinart wasn't able to slightly turn his body to square himself with his intended target. The consistent pattern was that Leinart would throw a fairly straight ball down the middle of the field, behind a back or receiver headed toward the perimeter. Leinart often seemed unable to make that slight 30-degree body rotation that would have made all the difference on his short passes, which require agility and crispness more than raw strength"

If doing all those bad things, of being "inaccurate" leads to a 23/30 night, nearly 300 yards and a sweet comeback on the road, we'd LOVE to see what happens when Matt Leinart has it right!

Are some of his passes a bit wobbly? Yeah. But they've been like that his entire career. For a first-time observer, it's a bit difficult to adjust to, but after 17 or so games, it's become clear Matt Leinart's passes find the right spot way more often than not. His 4.5:1 TD/INT ratio is undeniable proof of such.

Matt made about two bad throws out of 30 on Saturday. That's phenomenal. Quarterbacks should be so lucky.

When the Trojans needed Matt, he was there, delivering on several huge third down strikes and lobs down the field. His receivers could easily hang their heads after every game, but Matt continues to go to them. It's not his fault that strange things happen oncein a while. Have we not forgotten his all-world, 5th year senior tight end Alex Holmes with the greatest set of hands at Troy since Lynn Swann dropped a gimme 5-yard touchdown in the first quarter?

How can someone put that on Matt? They can't, but Zemek is sure trying. For three big paragraphs he's basically whining about a mere seven incompletions. Did he not watch the skill and execution, the savvy and poise bubbling out from that comeback? We saw it. A lot of other college football fans saw it. Messr. Zemek apparently did not.

Heisman Race Rapidly Narrows

First things first, our Heisman list looks like this, one third the way through the 2004-2005 college football season:

1-Matt Leinart
2-Cedric Benson
3-Kyle Orton
4-Jason White
5-Reggie Bush

That appears to be the field for New York, with few remaining challengers. The only real outsiders with a chance right now? Darren Sproles and Aaron Rodgers (pending outcome of USC/Cal game).

Here's what our favorite, HeismanPundit, has to say:

HeismanPundit Top 7

Pundit's Thoughts on Matt Leinart/The Race

"I truly believe that there is a 85% chance that the Heisman will be awarded to one of the following three players:

1. Matt Leinart, USC--The Trojan quarterback put up a season-high 308 yards on 24 of 30 passing. He was so consistent that he was 12 of 15 for 154 yards in the first half, and put up the exact same numbers in the second half. On the season, he is completing 68% of his passes for 1,047 yards, with 8 TD passes and just one interception. He also has two rushing touchdowns. He calmly led USC back from an 11-point deficit to win and that's exactly what is expected of a Heisman candidate. His next challenge will be the matchup with Cal. A big game against the Bears could put some distance between him and his competitors.

What Leinart needs to do to win--Leinart needs to keep doing what he's doing, which is producing good numbers for the No. 1 team. Big games against Cal, ASU and Notre Dame should give him his best chance to state his case on national TV. He is on pace for 3,100 yards, 24 TDs and just 3 interceptions. If USC is undefeated and he has those numbers, he'll win.

What Could Lose It For Leinart--If Leinart throws some costly interceptions in a loss to Cal, his candidacy will be hurt big time. He would have to rebound with huge numbers and hope others slip up to have a shot again."

We think he can recover from some bad plays against Cal. Right now it looks like USC should put up some very good offensive numbers against the Cal Bears, although this game can go in a lot of different directions. Matt should be able to recover, as he makes the usual end-of-season run that recent great USC quarterbacks (himself among them) have done under Norm Chow and Pete Carroll. His stats will blossom, and he'll be in the race with a strong chance at winning so long as he once again holds serve against Cal.

We expect an impressive performance from him, so our expectations are high for this game.

The Polls

USC continues to lead both the AP and ESPN/Coaches polls. Congrats Matt on leading the #1 team in America!

Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week

We knew this honor was coming Matt's way. He played a hell of a game, leading an 11-point comeback, making completions at a near 80% clip, and throwing for just under 300 yards against a veteran secondary on the road.

Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week

Stat Change

From MattLeinartBlog-

"The new stats from the Stanford game are up in the 'stats' link on the left. It looks like they have changed the 'fumble' by Steve Smith back to an interception, so my numbers for the game are 23 of 30 for 284 yard, 1 TD and 1 pick. Oh well"

I'll speak up for Matt, here. The play was a fumble. Poor decision by whoever was in charge to change that statistic. Steve Smith caught the ball and was on his way down when the defender hit the ball with his helmet, forcing it out of Smith's hands, into the air, and eventually into a defender's arms.

Without that helmet to ball contact, the ball never pops loose from Smith's arms, thus, it's a fumble.

Matt's Stanford Photos

Portrait of a Leader

Matt Leinart Story

This one is from Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle-USC's Matt Leinart Keeps His Cool

"Try this for consistency: Leinart was 12-for-15 for 154 yards in the first half against Stanford on Saturday, and he was 12-for-15 for 154 yards in the second half. Although the Trojans players referred to the halftime fireworks as the impetus for their comeback, Leinart's steadiness made it possible. It's worth noting USC is 16-1 with Leinart as its starting quarterback"

Matt's Performance

Was excellent. Let's get that out of the way.

For one half of football, the Trojans looked vulnerable. The Trojan offense had just three posessions, one of them on a very short field after an interception return, before taking the ball with about five minutes left in the second quarter.

Stanford simply held onto the ball and nickle and dimed the Trojan defense and the clock. As any football fan knows, it's too hard to play that kind of football for a full game, especially against a terrific team like USC.

So, Matt made the most of limited opportunities in the first half, engineering a beautiful touchdown drive with under two minutes left and playing nearly flawless football. The problem was the Trojans couldn't get the ball back.

This game was a testament to improving coordination and timing between Matt and his receivers. Steve Smith was excellent in coming back to his quarterback when plays broke down, and made some tough catches. Chris McFoy had an impressive third down catch late in the fourth quarter (after an amazing throw by Leinart), and Dwayne Jarrett finally cured his case of the dropsies, making several key catches behind Stanford's zone. Impressive performance by those three.

What made Matt's showing so impressive was that Stanford's 3-4 defense committed heavily to jumping the Trojans' passing game. Not unlike Virginia Tech, USC's first opponent, the Cardinal had three senior defensive backs who made few mistakes and tested the quarterbacks' ability to read their defense and get the ball to the most available receiver.

For the evening, Leinart completed a ridiculous 24 of 30 passes (80%!) for 308 yards, 1 touchdown and no interceptions.

Tight end Alex Holmes actually dropped an easy touchdown pass on third down, forcing the Trojans to attempt a field goal and halting Matt Leinart's 15-game streak of throwing at least two touchdown passes. Oh well.

Matt also ran for another two crucial first downs on third and short, impressively moving the pile on his runs, and snuck in from the goal line for his second rushing touchdown of the year.

Matt did everything possible to help USC win this game, and nothing to hurt it. He threw the ball downfield a few more times, most notably on two connections to Steve Smith (one of which was fumbled on one of those freakish helmet to ball plays), and directed a super-confident Trojan offense to another 30-point performance (31) with some amazing momentum-gaining, time-killing drives. It was really impressive to see, if you like watching a team recover from 11-point deficits on some heart breaking plays in a mere half of football.

Add miraculous comeback to his Heisman resume, in a tight game the Trojans needed to test their resolve.

For the year, Matt Leinart's line goes like this:

85-124 (.685)
1047 yards
8TD/1INT

He's approaching a ridiculous 70% completion rate, not bad! 1 interception in 124 attempts is also very impressive.

The great thing about the game was catching Matt's body language during it. He looked very focused, but also very loose. On the field he wasn't getting upset, merely showing us that usual steely gaze of his (Reggie Bush has the same calm look) as he made the plays needed for USC's offense to come back.

If not for the class of Pete Carroll, USC would have added another touchdown late, but as usual that's not Troy's style, and let the game end at 31-28, a nod to the strong effort presented by the Cardinal team.

After the game Matt seemed almost jubilant, excited to finally get the challenge of mounting a comeback, and facing a team that didn't simply roll over. He was up to the challenge. Again, that's a notch on his Heisman belt, to us here at Leinart4Heisman. The kid simply does not get troubled by tight situations. He may not win them all, but he'll make plays and not lose focus, it's a great quarterback quality and probably has become the identity of the Trojan offense.