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Matthew Leinart (born May 11, 1983 in Santa Ana, California) is an American football quarterback (QB) who played for the University of Southern California Trojans, leading them to two national titles. Leinart played QB at Mater Dei High School, Santa Ana. In 2004, his junior year at USC, he won the Heisman Trophy. He also won the inaugural Manning Award for college quarterbacks in the same season. Anticipating his entry into the NFL, he signed with Creative Artists Agency to handle endorsements, and Leigh Steinberg to be his agent in January 2006. Leinart is expected to be drafted second overall in the 2006 NFL Draft in most projections.
College career
In his redshirt freshman year, he backed up then-quarterback Carson Palmer, who also won the Heisman and is now with the Cincinnati Bengals. In the following offseason, Leinart beat out Matt Cassel and former Purdue transfer Brandon Hance for the Trojan starting job at QB. Since taking over as USC's starter, Leinart has accumulated a 37-2 record, was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year twice, and has won the prestigious Heisman Trophy. Leinart presently is the all-time Pac-10 conference leader in touchdowns with 98. Leinart is expected to pass Palmer in 2005 as USC's all-time passing leader, and was one of only five players to go into a season with the possibilty of winning two Heisman Trophies, joining Archie Griffin in 1975, Billy Sims in 1978, Ty Detmer in 1991, and Jason White in 2004; Griffin went on to win the other Heisman, while Sims, Detmer, White, and now Leinart, failed to do so.
On December 7 2005, Leinart was selected as a Heisman Trophy finalist for a second consecutive year, set to appear again at the award ceremony in New York City with teammate Reggie Bush and University of Texas at Austin quarterback Vince Young. Having won the Heisman Trophy in 2004, he was able to cast a vote for the 2005 Heisman; Leinart voted for Bush over himself, and Bush went on to win the Heisman by the 17th-largest point margin in the award's history. After numerous accolades and 34 straight wins as a starter, Leinart's college career ended on a slightly sour note as he and his USC Trojans fell to Young and the Texas Longhorns in the 2006 Rose Bowl, 41-38. Leinart himself had a typically spectacular game, completing 29 of 40 passes for 365 yards and a touchdown against a Longhorn defense that was statistically among the best in the country, but his performance was overshadowed by Young's own sensational effort in leading Texas to the victory. In a postgame interview, Leinart said that despite the Trojans' loss to Texas, "I still think we're a better team. They just made the plays in the end."
On a personal note, Leinart majors in sociology at USC. He returned to USC for the 2005 season despite the lure of millions in the NFL. He only needed to take one class to graduate and chose ballroom dancing, a class which filled to capacity shortly thereafter, a choice for which he received light-hearted ribbing from many people across the nation. He was born with strabismus ("crossed eyes"), as his left eye was not aligned correctly with his right. He underwent surgery when he was 3 years old and was fitted with glasses, correcting the problem.
Player profile
Leinart is considered one of the top NFL prospects of the 2006 draft class. Standing 6'5" (1.96 m) and weighing 225 pounds (100 kg), this left-handed thrower has the prototypical size for a quarterback. And while much of his success has been predicated on the high level of talent that USC head coach Pete Carroll has surrounded Leinart with (as well as the schemes of former Trojans offensive coordinator Norm Chow), Leinart has a very accurate arm, and, perhaps more importantly, he possesses rare football intelligence along with outstanding decision-making and leadership skills.
Leinart's vaunted poise, accuracy, and decision-making were epitomized in one play when the Trojans played at Notre Dame in October 2005. With USC trailing 31-28 and time running out, Leinart audibled to a fade route on 4th and 9 -- an unheard-of action by a quarterback in such a situation -- and lobbed the ball perfectly into the hands of teammate Dwayne Jarrett, who beat the man-to-man coverage and raced for a 61-yard gain. A few plays later, Leinart scored the game-winning touchdown on a quarterback sneak as time expired. Leinart and Jarrett's clutch connection was one of the defining plays of the 2005 season, and it remains one of the most famous plays in the history of the Notre Dame-Southern California series.
Despite such uncanny ability in key situations, one possible area of concern regarding Leinart is his arm strength; after undergoing surgery to remove tendonitis from his throwing elbow after the 2004 season, it was believed that Leinart's arm strength would significantly improve in his senior year, but that notion only somewhat bore out. And while he has the arm and accuracy to make terrific deep throws, NFL scouts are still dubious as to whether or not he can squeeze the ball into tight spots 15-20 yards downfield, as is particularly required on "deep out" patterns.
2006 NFL Draft
By returning for his senior season Leinart probably hurt his draft position, as he most likely would have been selected as the first pick in the 2005 draft but now figures to be drafted at some point after his USC teammate (and Heisman Trophy successor) Reggie Bush. Some also speculate that he could even be drafted after Vince Young, in light of Young's dazzling Rose Bowl performance. With the current setup, though, the team most likely to draft Leinart (according to FootballMinds.com and several other experts) is probably the New Orleans Saints, who hold the #2 pick and are also in need of a quarterback.
Honors
2004
- Heisman Trophy Winner
- Rose Bowl MVP
- Walter Camp Award
- AP player of the year
- Touchdown Club Manning Award
- Touchdown Club QB of the year
- Victor Award player of the year
- Sullivan Award Finalist
- AP All-American first team
- Football Coaches All-American first team
- ESPN
- CSTV
- Rivals.com
- SportsIllustrated.com
- CollegeFootballNews.com All-American first team
- Pac-10 Co-offensive player of the year
- ESPN.com player of the year
- Rivals.com player of the year
- Pre-season All-American
2005
- Orange Bowl MVP
- Unitas Award
- Finalist for Heisman Trophy
- All-American Offensive Player
- LA Sports Sportsman of the Year
- Sporting News Sportsman of the Year
2006
- Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Males 2006
External links
- MattLeinartBlog.com - Matt Leinart's official blog
- USCTrojans.com - Matt Leinart profile and bio
- Matt Leinart - Matt Leinart Unofficial Website
- Heisman Voting Results