FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: SOUTHERN CAROLINA v OKLAHOMA

January 2, 2005

Jason White

JASON WHITE: I think more than anything with the hype with the game, it just adds to the excitement of the game, especially for the players. Getting down here, we've been here for seven or eight days, so you get to see a lot, you get to do a lot. I think it's just part of a bowl game and playing in the National Championship.

JASON WHITE: Actually I haven't really heard much about it. I have had a lot of questions asked about Matt and this year, but I really haven't heard much hype about two Heisman Trophy winners. I don't read the papers and stuff.

JASON WHITE: Yeah, I'm not spending as much time in the training room. I'm going out and doing things. This year seems like we know what we have to do. We know we have to prepare better than we did last year, and I think we've accomplished that so far.

JASON WHITE: Yeah, Matt is a great quarterback. He makes very quick decisions. He's smart with the ball. He's a great leader. He never gets rattled. Everything that his teammates say about him is true. They're not just saying that just to make him look good. He's a great player, a great quarterback, and he plays the position well.

JASON WHITE: Ours?

JASON WHITE: It just kind of depends on what the defense is giving us. At the first of the year our running game was working extremely well because everybody worked on our pass game as far as what they prepared for for the game. But the emerging of the running game, it's been great for us, and now they have to try to stop the run, and on certain downs they have to decide whether they're going to try to stop the run or the pass, and it's kind of like pick their poison, which they want to try to stop.

JASON WHITE: Adrian has been a great asset to the team. I think he'll be the first to tell you that it starts up front. I know in the spring last year our running game was working a lot better just because of the guys up front. They really put an emphasis on wanting to make the run game work, and with Adrian, he came in and he gave us a big play threat. He can touch the ball and go 80 real quick. He's been a great help, but as he'll tell you, it starts up front, and that's what gets it going.

JASON WHITE: I don't think it's just one person. I think mainly, like I said earlier, it's up front. The way they're playing this year, they have a totally different attitude this year. Last year was more of a finesse team. All we do could do really was pass, but this year we're doing both.

JASON WHITE: Senior year has been great. Last year, I didn't really get to enjoy my year last year even though it could have been my senior year. This year I've learned to enjoy it, not near as much attention this year as last year, just really go out and play football instead of dealing with everything else. A lot of guys on the team made the decision to come back, and the reason to come back was to win the Big-12 Championship and win this game, and I think we worked hard to do that, and we made it.

JASON WHITE: Yeah, I would. They're a lot of the same defense, the same blitzes. The front four are real good, our front four are real good. We see our defense every day, but of course they're going to be different in different ways, so it's good to play against our defense, but I'm sure they're going to play us a different way than everybody else.

JASON WHITE: I don't feel like I was overlooked. To myself and I think to my teammates, I was playing the quarterback position better this year than last year. What I mean by that is just making better decisions, taking care of the ball, getting the team in the right play. That's what quarterbacks do. When you've got a run game working as well as ours was at the beginning of the season, you're not going to get the attention, and I was fine with that. We're winning games. I really don't care.

JASON WHITE: I don't know. I'm not really a betting man, either. I just think it's going to be a great game. You'd be taking a gamble betting on either team. I think both teams are so evenly matched at every position, it's going to be -- seems like it's going to be a game all the way to the finish.

JASON WHITE: If you want.

JASON WHITE: It's been great playing for Coach Stoops. I was part of his first recruiting class, and ever since I came in, it's been great. He knows when it's time to work, on the field and in the meeting rooms, but he also knows there's our things outside that that go on, and when you're not on the field he can have a conversation with you about anything, and when you're on the field, it's strictly football, and that's how we understand things at Oklahoma. He put that in us, and the thing about Coach Stoops is he's going to get you to work as hard as you can just by the way he shows he cares about his team.

JASON WHITE: Last year was extremely disappointing to go through the regular season like we did and then lose the last two games. Everybody talks about how good we were the first 12 games and then all of a sudden we lose and we're the worst team in college football. Last year was very disappointing as a team, and it taught us a lot the last two games. I think we carried that over to this year and tried to make it work to finish this year.

JASON WHITE: Much better than last year. Last year all the attention after winning the Heisman and the interviews were every day, two or three sometimes a day, and this year it's not been anything. I can go to practice, go watch film, go to my room. Last year it wasn't like that. It was go to practice, do interviews, try to squeeze a little film in every now and then. This year I feel much more prepared than last year and hopefully play a lot better than I did last year.

JASON WHITE: I think the biggest thing that sticks in my head was the emails that I got last year after the Sugar Bowl, just saying that I need to give back the Heisman Trophy, quit the team, and then one of my friends sent a newspaper clipping to me that said they needed a recount on the Heisman that somebody wrote. That somebody might be here, too (laughter). Stuff like that motivates me. I felt like it's a great opportunity to come back, play another season and once again prove myself. I guess last year wasn't enough.

JASON WHITE: I said I enjoyed this year a lot more than I did last year. Not necessarily that I didn't enjoy last year because I did, but it seems like this year was much more fun to me. I had more fun this year.

JASON WHITE: Being back here after 2000? 2000 I walked through the tunnel knowing I wasn't going to play. I probably didn't even need to put my pads on. But in 2000 it was fun for me because me and Mark Clayton, we were part of the scout team offense, and we took pride in playing against the best defense in the nation. But I think it'll help out just being in the stadium before. It's been exciting so far and I think it'll be even more exciting playing the game.

JASON WHITE: I don't think necessarily redemption. It's something that I had as a goal to be back and play. But to play well and win will be great. That will be a great way to cap off my career at OU.

JASON WHITE: It's at my mom and dad's house on a mantle in front of the fireplace.

JASON WHITE: I wanted to become a better quarterback, play the quarterback position better, and my mindset was first to get healthy right after the Sugar Bowl. It took me a while to get healthy, but I finally did. I worked hard in the summer to stay healthy, to make sure the problems didn't come back, and they haven't. It's been great. I've been rewarded and definitely blessed that I didn't have any -- haven't had any injuries this year.

JASON WHITE: You've got to play all four quarters. You've got to be patient with the ball, take what they give you. They're a great defense. They're not going to give you much, but when it's there you've got to take it and you can't force things.

JASON WHITE: No, I think that's in everybody's head. I know a lot of people haven't had much success doing it, but it's not a big deal I don't think. I know I didn't play particularly well last year, but it wasn't because I won the Heisman.

JASON WHITE: I think I feel less attention, which is great. I'm not a guy to want to be in the spotlight all the time, but I feel less attention, and it's been great. I've been able to enjoy this week a lot more.

JASON WHITE: I think I realize how rare it is, and you've got to give credit to the coaches. They came in the program, they turned it around real quick, and they keep on improving the program, and when you've got a program like what OU has right now, you're going to recruit great players. So the longer Coach Stoops is going to be here, the better the program is going to get.

JASON WHITE: I think they'll compete every year, especially for a Big-12 Championship. If you win that game, you're going to play in the BCS. Expect them to play in big games every year.

JASON WHITE: I just tried to take care of close friends and family. I got all my tickets. I had to find a couple of extra. You usually have to go find somebody that you gave tickets to before, and you tell them, hey, look, I need these tickets.

JASON WHITE: I got so many, I couldn't even tell you. Geez, I don't know.

JASON WHITE: Well, you could take this stadium and you would not fill it up with my hometown first of all, and it's a small farming community, but it's a great place to grow up. They love their football there, and of course that's what I like to do. But as far as with the Heisman at the house, you get random people come over and want to look at it, want to take pictures with it, which is fine. But it's exciting to see all the people come by and all the people you want to high school with want to come over and look at the Heisman.

JASON WHITE: I've had a lot of random people come to the house that I've never seen before and want to take pictures, but the oddest thing that's ever happened is a family came over and had their kids with them, and they wanted to take a picture in my bathroom (laughter). The kids were young. I don't know, but as soon as I got off the plane with the Heisman, at first I took it home, then I took it to a good friend, Brian Stewart, and showed him, and I took it and showed my high school coach, and then I took it back to Norman so some of the guys on the team could see it because they deserved it just as much as me. Then I took it back home, and now it's still there.

JASON WHITE: It's all the media requests you have to take. I've learned a lot from last year, and there's ways to get around it. I'm sure Matt has done a great job with it.

JASON WHITE: I don't believe in it. You know, there's players that have played well after winning the Heisman and still lost. It's a team effort. I don't think it's all just put on one player.

JASON WHITE: It's the top of my list. It would be the best way to end my career at OU. We worked extremely hard to do it.