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'Lack of respect' Dorsey sounds off on critics after fifth-place showingPosted: Saturday December 14, 2002 11:05 PMUpdated: Sunday December 15, 2002 10:12 AM
By Albert Lin, CNNSI.com NEW YORK -- As it turned out, strangely enough, having finished third in the Heisman race a year ago may have hurt Ken Dorsey's chances this season. The Miami quarterback, 38-1 as a starter, threw for career-highs of 3,073 yards and 26 touchdowns and has his team on a 34-game winning streak and playing for its second straight national title. Yet somehow, he placed fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting. Even winner Carson Palmer's father, Bill, paid Dorsey a strong compliment during ESPN's broadcast: "You can't win 'em all. Unless you're Ken Dorsey." Indeed, it makes one wonder what more Dorsey could have done. He passed up the NFL to return to college and had a better 2002 than 2001, yet he dropped in the voting. Rather than focusing on what Dorsey was doing, fans and media members spent the fall looking for perceived shortcomings. Dorsey doesn't have great arm strength. He's too vanilla. His receivers make him look good. Willis McGahee is the best player on the team. Miami isn't winning in impressive enough fashion. "I think expectations were high and in some people's minds I didn't fulfill those expectations," Dorsey said. "It's people's opinion of you. I know not everybody likes me; plenty of people don't like me. If you go to Florida State, I'm sure a lot of people there don't like me. But I understand that it's opinions, and some people think there are others who are better than me on the field." On the air, Dorsey acknowledged that the criticism was tough to swallow, but he stopped short of a Charles Barkley-esque tirade. Afterward he was less inhibited. "To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know I threw for 3,000 yards," he said. "The way people talked to me and asked me questions, you'd think I threw for 1,500 or something. "I'm glad I came back as a senior, to experience all ends of the spectrum. Having to deal with adversity has made me a better player." The ambivalence toward Dorsey extended to the rest of the team. Popular thinking held that neither he nor McGahee could win the Heisman because they would split votes, but their combined point total (1,303) still fell short of Palmer's (1,328). Dorsey also pointed out that no Hurricane went home with any of the major individual awards, despite the incredible run the team has enjoyed. "I almost feel like there's a very big lack of respect for the University of Miami that we want to earn back," he said. The Hurricanes have that chance on Jan. 3 against Ohio State, something not lost on Dorsey. While Palmer and runner-up Brad Banks will clash in the Orange Bowl and third-place Larry Johnson will run at the Capital One Bowl, McGahee and Dorsey will be playing for the Sears Trophy. "Even though I finished dead last [among the five finalists], the last time I checked I'm still going to the Fiesta Bowl," Dorsey said. "That means the most. The national championship game is the biggest venue in college football. I want to go out and play well. I want to go out and hopefully have a good day. Some people don't respect my ability, and I want to try to prove some critics wrong." With a strong showing and a win against the Buckeyes, Dorsey finally may gain recognition for his accomplishments. But even if acclaim doesn't follow, he will have directed a team to a level of success not seen since Oklahoma's record 47-game winning streak in the 1950s. And he will have two national championships in his pocket. "We've had a great stretch, put up a lot of wins in a row," Dorsey said. "We're at the point now where people who used to like us don't really like us anymore. They like someone else. They're tired of us. And we want to go out and make more people tired of us." |
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