DALLAS - When a Heisman Trophy with your name on it sits on the mantel in your parents’ home and you’re still playing college football, everything you do is analyzed with a critical eye.

It barely matters that you just led your team to a 12-0 victory over an arch rival ranked in the Top 5.

When you are Jason White, senior quarterback of the No. 2-ranked Oklahoma Sooners, and you complete 14-of-26 passes for just 113 yards and had two tipped passes intercepted, you’re the only one they whisper about while leaving the stadium or openly discuss in sports bars and living rooms (other than the aforementioned one in the little town of Tuttle, Okla., of course).

“He didn’t have a good game, did he?”

“Well, I guess there won’t be a repeat Heisman.”

While there is some truth to all of that, Bob Stoops is tickled crimson.

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“Jason, as always, managed the game in a great way,” said the head coach of Oklahoma/master of Texas.

Managing would appear to be White’s role at this point. Getting the Sooners from here to there, winning the fight for field position, playing second- or even third-fiddle to an old school Oklahoma running game, featuring freshman phenom Adrian Peterson, and Stoops’ usual stingy defense.

Last season, White was less of a manager and more of a lifter, putting the Oklahoma offense on his shoulders. He passed for more than 240 yards 12 times and in four of those instances went over 300, while making up for a ground attack that couldn’t effectively gain yards when it needed to. Forty touchdown passes and 3,846 yards later, you’ve got to figure out a way to get a bulky 35-pound bronze trophy into an overhead compartment.

With so many Heisman candidates, legitimate and otherwise, gaining mention these days, White’s attempt at becoming the only repeat winner besides Ohio State’s Archie Griffin in 1974-75, relies heavily on Oklahoma going undefeated and winning its third Big 12 title in the last five years.

That team goal remains viable. And judging from their most recent performance, the Sooners are a good bet to run the table all the way to the Orange Bowl. But, even if Oklahoma does do that, White won’t be the Sooners’ best shot at a fifth Heisman.

That man would be Peterson, a Texas native who shrugged off the dreaded Sports Illustrated jinx and supposedly game Longhorn defense, rushing for 225 yards on 32 carries.

White, however, has always been a “team guy” and doesn’t mind a bit. Cut his stats in half and still give him Oklahoma’s fifth consecutive victory over Texas and he’ll be all smiles.

“Coach put in a great game plan for us this week and we executed it … especially the run game,” the sixth-year Sooner said. “The passing game wasn’t there, so we turned to the run.  My hat goes off to the offensive line. They did a great job and Adrian (Peterson) and Kejuan (Jones) both ran hard.”

White couldn’t be happier because having a dependable running game usually means having a healthy quarterback in the pocket, which are both things that Oklahoma didn’t have last year.

Those deficiencies really showed up at the end of the season in back-to-back losses to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship and LSU in the Sugar Bowl for the BCS title. White, who had already overcome a series of injuries, including torn ACLs in both knees, took brutal beatings in each of those games as the Wildcat and Tiger defenses took firm aim at No. 18 with little regard for much else. But this year, Oklahoma has a running game that is simply fearful.

There were times against the Longhorns when Peterson looked like the same man-among-boys that he was at Palestine (Texas) High School last year, starring in his own version of “Friday Night Lights,” 112 miles southeast of here.  After a few doses of him pounding the football right through the middle of the Texas defense or turning the corner and blasting up field until being dragged down by a collection of tacklers, the Longhorns began taking their best shot with desperate dives at Peterson’s lower legs.

A couple of those shots spilled him and a pair more sent Peterson to the sidelines favoring something or other, but the youngster kept coming back, adding to this yardage total.

“Peterson’s really good and he’s going to be a great player at OU,” said Texas head coach Mack Brown, in perhaps the understatement of the day. “He made some great plays today.  He’s really tough. I thought our guys hit him really well. He took a lot of good hits.”

With Peterson chewing up yards before courageously and willingly absorbing hits instead of White, there’s no telling where these Sooners can go. But, you’ve got to like their chances of both going on a short trip to New York City before visiting Miami.