John David Booty for Heisman: What Kind of Sick Joke Is This?

Being a USC fan, I usually have my schedule for this time of year blocked off for securing tickets to the National Championship game. 

However, with this year's unfortunate  and depressing change of plans, I've had some time free up to surf the good ol' Internets. 

Today I happened to stumble upon maligned USC quarterback John David Booty's new website. 

My one-word review?

HILARIOUS!  

In his own site's latest Heisman rankings, Booty has himself ranked No. 5 in the race.

That's a little high for someone whose name and "Heisman Trophy" should never have been mentioned in the same sentence.

But that's not the kicker. 

Guess who's ranked next at No. 6 on Booty's list?

That would be Oregon signal caller Dennis Dixon, everyone else's consensus leader in the Heisman race.

Booty above Dixon? You gotta be F-ing kidding me. 

Since Booty clearly doesn't realize it yet, allow me to inform him that he has had a terrible year.  

I've never seen a senior quarterback get so much worse than he was as a junior.  It just goes to show that Booty was never that good to begin with. 

While Booty ended up with a great stat line in 2006, anyone who watched the games knew he simply threw up a bunch of crap and relied on Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett to catch everything...which they did. 

With that duo gone and USC's inexperienced and less talented receiving corps thrust into starting roles, Booty has been exposed for what he is: a subpar QB with a weak arm, spotty accuracy, no leadership ability, and—worst of all—no heart whatsoever. 

And yet this guy still thinks he's a Heisman contender? 

I'm left scratching my head. 

The most pathetic thing is the way they manipulate Booty's numbers on the site. 

If you look at his 2007 stats, they calculate his QB rating by leaving out interceptions.  

Thus, in the Stanford game, he has a 133 rating.  

HA!  

For the worst game of his career, he has a 105 rating against Washington.  

You can't calculate QB ratings without including INTs.  If you factor the picks in like you're supposed to, the ratings tell a much different story.

In the Stanford game—in which he threw four interceptions with a broken middle finger—Booty's rating should be a 67. The actual rating for the game against Washington should be 79.

At first I thought Booty's site must simply be out of date—the work of a lackadaisical sitemaster who'd failed to update the Heisman Watch section with fresh stats for other players.  

 

Wrong.  

 

The site uses the following justification for declaring Booty as the No. 5 college player in the nation:

 

""Booty returned from injury this week to lead the Trojans to victory against Oregon State. He was 19 of 33 for 157 yards and 2 touchdowns. This performance, coupled with no interceptions, has put him back in the race. He will need to continue having solid performances in order to move up against some stiff competition. Booty will stay at #5 this week on the Heisman watch.""

 

Back in the race?  

 

Perhaps this is a sad symbol of the delusions of the Trojans and their fans—who still believe they're the best team in the nation.