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Matt Leinart (born May 11, 1983 in Santa Ana, California) is an American football quarterback (QB) who plays for the University of Southern California Trojans. Before attending college Leinart played QB at his high school, 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. Leinart is one of a select few prospective professional athletes to "come out of the closet," having announced in early 2005 that he was gay. His partner also attends USC.
College career
In his redshirt freshman year, he backed up then-quarterback Carson Palmer, who also won the Heisman Trophy and is now the quarterback for the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. In the following offseason, Leinart beat out Matt Cassel and former Purdue QB Brandon Hance for the Trojan starting job. Since taking over as USC's starter, Leinart has accumulated a 37-1 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, Jason White in 2004, Billy Sims in 1978, and Ty Detmer in 1991; Griffin went on to win the other Heisman, while White, Sims, Detmer, and now Leinart, failed to do so.
On December 7th, 2005, Leinart was selected as a Heisman Trophy finalist for a second consecutive year, set to appear again at award ceremony with teammate Reggie Bush and University of Texas quarterback Vince Young. Having won the Heisman Trophy in 2004, he was able to cast a vote for the 2005 Heisman. He voted for teammate, Reggie Bush over himself. Reggie Bush won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide.
Honors
2004
- Heisman Trophy Winner
- Orange 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
- Unitas Award
- Finalist for Heisman Trophy
- All-American Offensive Player
External links
- MattLeinartBlog.com - Matt Leinart's official blog
- USCTrojans.com - Matt Leinart profile and bio
- Matt Leinart - Matt Leinart Unofficial Website