Toby Gerhart

Stanford football Coach Jim Harbaugh is partial to athletes whose fathers coached them, because he used to be one of those athletes. So when his star running back, Toby Gerhart, calls home nearly every day to talk to his father Todd, and maybe hears a nugget of advice about the way his feet were moving or the way he cut right or left, Harbaugh isn't insulted. He's pleased. "Kids who have been coached by their fathers, they are almost always really coachable kids," Harbaugh said.

UCLA hopes a pattern isn't forming that entails the opponent's tailback having a showcase performance. First it was Stanford's Toby Gerhart (134 yards). Then it was Oregon's LaMichael James (152 yards). This week, UCLA faces California's Jahvid Best , considered a Heisman Trophy front-runner before the Bears were thumped in consecutive losses to Oregon and USC. "If you don't get your arms around him, he is going to make you pay and pay dearly," Coach Rick Neuheisel said.

It's not yet clear who will supplant USC as the Pacific 10 Conference champion, the scenarios still needing to play out over the next 2 1/2 weeks. But you don't have to look at this week's conference or Bowl Championship Series standings to realize that most of the teams sometimes referred to as the Nine Dwarfs have closed the gap -- in recruiting and on the field -- with USC. Trojans Coach Pete Carroll acknowledged as much Saturday after Stanford walloped his team, 55-21, at the Coliseum.

Two years after Alabama claimed its first Heisman Trophy, Baylor finally bagged one of its own. There's a first time for everything, even in Waco. Robert Griffin III won the 77th Heisman Trophy on Saturday in New York. The junior quarterback, who led Baylor to a 9-3 record this season, collected 405 first-place votes and 1,687 overall points to beat Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who captured 247 first-place votes and 1,407 points. "We're all amazed when great things happen," Griffin said on ESPN after winning the award.

It came on a simple dive play midway through the third quarter Thursday night at Corona High. Toby Gerhart, as he'd done a hundred times before, blasted up the middle on third-down-and-four, and gained five yards. First down, and just like that California had a new high school career rushing leader. The Norco High senior now has 8,632 rushing yards and a record, he said afterward, that "hasn't sunk in yet."

UCLA linebacker Reggie Carter couldn't hide his glee thinking about playing Stanford on Saturday in Palo Alto. "Physical, physical, physical," Carter said. "I've been waiting for a game like this again. Playing Tennessee was great, but then Kansas State came in and started hitting us with that crazy spread stuff. "Stanford plays old-fashioned, downhill football. They have a downhill back, and an aggressive offensive line. I'm looking forward to this game. "I'm not going to trash talk.

When sophomore defensive tackle Jeff Miller of Westlake Village Westlake started practicing with the varsity football team this season, the skepticism from teammates was loud and clear. "Oh, you're Jimmy Miller's little brother. I wonder if you can do anything," was an initial response. Thirteen weeks later, Jeff Miller is more than holding his own playing alongside his USC-bound brother. He has four sacks and is an important contributor for the unbeaten Warriors (12-0).

Tim Tebow taught Mark Ingram how to win a Heisman Trophy from his knees. Before the ceremony Saturday that made Alabama football history, Tebow noticed Ingram was a little nervous inside the Nokia Theatre. The Florida quarterback asked Ingram, the Crimson Tide 'running back, if he wanted to pray for tranquillity. Ingram can say "amen" after becoming Alabama's first Heisman winner in the closest race in the award's 75-year history. "We went in a quiet room and just prayed for peace for him, that all the nerves would die down and he would be able to enjoy the moment," Tebow said.

Kobe Bryant seems to be following in the footsteps of former teammate Karl Malone , who was the NBA's most valuable player in his 12th and 14th seasons with the Utah Jazz. . . . Bryant, 20 games into his 14th season with the Lakers, won the award for the first time two seasons ago. . . . The only other player to capture the honor so late in his career was Michael Jordan , who hauled off the last of his five MVP awards in his 13th season with the Chicago Bulls. . . . The Clippers have stayed close enough to give fans hope that a playoff run with Blake Griffin is still a possibility.

On the day Norco's Toby Gerhart learned he was the Glenn Davis Award winner as The Times' outstanding football player, he took batting practice for scouts of the Kansas City Royals. In June, he could be a high-round selection in Major League Baseball's amateur draft as well as his school's valedictorian. He had a 4.6 grade-point average at the beginning of the year. He narrowed his college choices, if he chooses to go, to Stanford or UCLA because they will let him play both sports.