by Travis Normand
Former Oklahoma quarterback, Jason White, won the Heisman trophy in 2003. As with all former winners of the trophy, White will have a vote in deciding who wins the trophy from now on.
So, in early December 2012, Jason White appeared on CampusInsiders.com [link is now apparently dead] revealing who he placed on his Heisman ballot. The article/video that was posted on CampusInsiders.com was titled “It takes one to know one,” in reference to the fact that it takes a Heisman winner to know another Heisman winner.
VIDEO: The CampusInsiders.com video was also posted here at NewsOK.com
Unfortunately, someone is wrong. Either CampusInsiders.com is wrong and it doesn’t take one Heisman winner to know another, or Jason White is wrong in that he wouldn’t know what a Heisman winner looked like if he was staring into a mirror.
I think it is the latter, not the former. White’s vote was (1) Kansas State’s Collin Klein, (2) Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, and (3) Oklahoma’s Landry Jones. Johnny Manziel was not on his ballot. If it takes a Heisman winner to know another, no one told White.
Or maybe Jason White only votes for players that he has actually seen play. We know he saw Collin Klein and Manti Te’o play this season, as Oklahoma lost (at home) to both Kansas State and Notre Dame. We also know that he saw Landry Jones play, as Landry plays QB for Oklahoma.
Oklahoma did not play Texas A&M and Johnny Manziel before the Heisman trophy was voted on and awarded. However, since that time, White got a great look at Manziel in the Cotton Bowl on January 4, 2013.
I wonder if that game changed White’s opinion of Manziel? The Aggies won 41-13. Manziel rushed for 229 yards on 17 carries with two touchdowns and was 22 of 34 passing for 287 yards and two touchdowns.
I would like to think that White would vote for Manziel (instead of Landry Jones) if he were given the chance to change his vote. After all, there are 800+ Heisman voters and we know how 200 +/- of them voted — White is the only one that had Landry Jones on his ballot.
Jones didn’t finish in the Top 10 of Heisman balloting, and while I am in favor of each Heisman voter casting his ballot according to his opinion, I would like to think his opinion would be in concert with at least a few of the other voters. However, in this case, it appears as if Jason White voted more like a Oklahoma fan would, and not as a former Heisman trophy winner would.
OnePointSafety 
I’m actually glad that he only voted based off of what he saw. Media hype should not affect who wins the Heisman Award.
I agree, its never good when media hype drives everyone’s opinion (and thus their vote as well).
However, in this case, it is fairly clear that White voted for his fellow OU Sooner, and left off the Aggie (former conference foe turned SEC).
I can forgive that more than I can the media determining the vote.
Do you think the media determined the vote this year?
Not this year; the Johnny Football stuff didn’t really catch my attention till week nine. The year Cam Newton won it? Definitely. I feel like his team mate (I’m blanking on the name) the defensive tackle; or Kellen Moore, or LaMichael James deserved it more.
In that case, in terms of Jason White, there is nothing to forgive.
I guess you could say that…sure