Quick Kicks

Heisman watch

Time to narrow the field to three (in order of preference):

Drew Brees, QB, Purdue: Sometimes, good guys win. Brees, virtually unwanted out of high school, stuck around for his senior season and all he did was lead the Boilermakers to their first Rose Bowl berth in 34 years. He leads the nation in total offense and holds nearly every Big Ten career passing record.

LaDainian Tomlinson, RB, TCU: The second player to go over 2,000 yards rushing in a season and 5,000 in his career, Tomlinson ran for 2,158 yards this season (4th-best all-time) and finished with 5,263 (sixth-best). Even if he becomes just the second of the eight 2,000-yard rushers to go without a Heisman, he can take pride in sticking it out as TCU went from 1-10 his freshman season to 10-1 this year.

Chris Weinke, QB, FSU: Rip Van Weinke, age 28, won’t become the oldest Heisman winner. Yes, he’s eligible, but his age and his status as a former professional baseball player won’t help him win the votes of purists. Still, he’s the star on the best team (sorry, Oklahoma) and he might have been a shoo-in had it not been for Wide Right III.

Hurricanes storm BC

Ken Dorsey threw a career-high five touchdown passes and Santana Moss broke Miami’s career all-purpose yardage record, in Miami’s win over Boston College.

Dorsey’s five TD passes tied the school record held by Bernie Kosar (1984) and Steve Walsh (1988). Moss had 235 all-purpose yards to break Otis Anderson’s career record. Moss has 4,402 total yards.

Perfect weekend for N.D.

Notre Dame’s 38-21 victory over archrival Southern California wasn’t the first big win for the Irish this Thanksgiving weekend.

In fact, it was the fifth.

The football game in Los Angeles began shortly after the Notre Dame basketball team, ranked 16th, defeated No. 14 Cincinnati 69-51.

Notre Dame’s women’s soccer and women’s basketball teams won important games Friday.

The Fighting Irish defeated Santa Clara 2-1 in overtime in a NCAA soccer quarterfinal and the basketball team, ranked fifth, defeated No. 6 Georgia 75-73 to win the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

The volleyball team, ranked 20th, won the Big East tournament and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament where the Fighting Irish will be making their eighth consecutive appearance.

Playing it safe

Notre Dame didn’t commit a turnover against USC, leaving the Fighting Irish with only eight for the season (compared to 22 by their opponents). Eight matches the all-time NCAA major college low, previously accomplished by Clemson in 1940 and Miami, Ohio in 1966.

Southern comfort

With seconds left in the game, Edreece Brown intercepted a two-point conversion pass and ran 99 yards to help Southern University hold on to a 33-29 victory over Grambling in the 27th Bayou Classic at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

Grambling (9-2, 6-1 in SWAC) got within two points, 31-29, on a 4-yard pass from Randy Hymes to Scotty Anderson with 7 seconds left. But their 2-point conversion pass was intercepted and returned for two points, preserving the eighth straight Bayou Classic victory for the Jaguars (6-5, 4-3).

Small-school highlights

Roy Hampton was 37 of 56 for 503 yards and three touchdowns in Trinity’s 47-41 overtime victory over Bridgewater.

P.T. O’Sullivan had 364 yards passing and six touchdowns as UC Davis beat Mesa State 62-18.

Division I-A yardage leaders

Cory Phillips, Georgia: 413 passing

Dee Brown, Syracuse: 239 rushing

Eric Richardson, Tulsa: 206 rushing