DAC picks four Heisman finalists

Monday, December 4th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Three quarterbacks _ Drew Brees of Purdue, Josh Heupel of Oklahoma and Chris Weinke of Florida State _ and running back LaDainian Tomlinson of Texas Christian were announced Monday as finalists for the Heisman Trophy.

The award to the nation's best college football player, will be presented by the Downtown Athletic Club on Saturday night.

The four finalists are the leading vote-getters in month-long balloting by 922 sports writers, broadcasters and former Heisman winners. Balloting continues through Friday but the finalists are well ahead of other contenders.

Brees, a finalist last year, is the Big Ten's career passing leader with 11,517 yards and led Purdue to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1966. He threw for 3,393 yards this season with 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, and he also ran for 516 yards and five more TDs.

Heupel led Oklahoma to the No. 1 ranking in the country, completing 256 of 389 passes for 3,172 yards with 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He has at least one TD pass in all 24 of his career games at Oklahoma and has passed for more than 300 yards in 14 of them.

Weinke led the nation with 4,167 passing yards with 33 TD passes and 11 interceptions. He 32-2 as a starters at Florida State with a streak of 25 consecutive victories. He holds Atlantic Coast Conference records for passing yardage at 9,789 and touchdown passes with 79. At 28, he would be the oldest to win a Heisman.

Tomlinson led the nation in rushing for the second consecutive year and became only the seventh back in NCAA history to run for 2,000 yards in a season. He carried 369 times for 2,158 yards _ fourth highest in NCAA history _ and 22 touchdowns. His 5,263 career yards is sixth highest in NCAA history.