White flops in national title game

NEW ORLEANS -- A relentless defense and a deafening crowd proved too daunting for Jason White and the Oklahoma Sooners.

The Heisman Trophy winner picked a terrible time to have his worst game of the season, and Oklahoma was denied a piece of the national title when it lost 21-14 to LSU in the Sugar Bowl on Sunday night.

White finished 13-of-37 for 102 yards with two interceptions. It was the second straight game in which he didn't throw a touchdown pass -- in the previous 12 games he'd tossed at least two.

The highly anticipated matchup between the nation's highest- scoring offense and stingiest scoring defense wasn't even close.

LSU won by a knockdown. Nearly a dozen of them.

Oklahoma's biggest weakness down the stretch -- an inability to protect White -- showed up again, this time against a defense that had befuddled other talented and tested quarterbacks like Mississippi's Eli Manning and Georgia's David Greene.

White was sacked three times and knocked down plenty of other times as LSU teed off on him throughout the game.

He was walloped on his final play of the season, a sack by 257- pound linebacker Lionel Turner on fourth-and-10.

It was pretty much the theme for the night.

The Sugar Bowl almost looked like a replay of White's nightmarish performance in the Sooners' Big 12 title game loss against Kansas State.

LSU befuddled White and the Sooners with well-timed blitzes that often had White throwing off his back foot and, ultimately, picking himself up off the Superdome turf.

White had only 28 yards passing at halftime -- in every other game this season he'd had at least one completion longer than that.

Things got even worse after the break.

White was sacked on the first play of the second half, then threw a terrible pass that was intercepted and returned 20 yards for a touchdown by Marcus Spears.

With two chances to tie the game in the final minutes, White couldn't get the Sooners into the end zone.

Oklahoma had four tries from the 12-yard line, but White overthrew a wide open Kejuan Jones in the end zone on third down and had a ball tipped away from his favorite target, Mark Clayton, on the final play of that drive.

White had hoped to become the third quarterback to win the Heisman and the national title in the same season, joining Florida State's Charlie Ward (1993) and Florida's Danny Wuerffel (1996).

Instead, White joined another, more dubious list of Heisman winners who struggled in big bowl games, including Florida State's Chris Weinke (2000) and Nebraska's Eric Crouch (2001).

Unlike those quarterbacks, however, White will return next season for another shot at the national title and a chance to become the only two-time Heisman winner since Ohio State's Archie Griffin in 1974-75.

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