The wait won't be long now.

Sometime tomorrow afternoon, Penn State tailback Larry Johnson will find out whether he's invited to the Yale Club in New York on Saturday as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.

And now, after spending a season trying to deflect questions about his individual performances, Johnson sounds like he really wants to win this thing.

He thinks he has the numbers, even if he didn't reach 100 rushing yards in the Nittany Lions' three losses. But just because Johnson now sounds like he's campaigning like a presidential hopeful in August, don't expect him to cow-tow to the voters.

"It [would be] nice for me to win it. At the same time, I know the justification of my playing in three games we lost," Johnson said. "If they hold it against me, I'd rather not win it. If that's my flaw, give it to someone else. I can only try so hard. If they're not going to look at that, just don't give me that award."

After the customary praise for the Lions' offensive line, which Johnson said will be joining him and his father in New York should Johnson be a finalist, Johnson began supplying answers to his critics.

For those who say Johnson didn't produce enough early in the season, Johnson contends the Lions' offense was passing-based early in the season, with Johnson often getting less than 20 carries.

He has an equally strong rebuttal for the pundits that have spent the last few weeks claiming he put up all of his yardage against weak defenses like Northwestern and Indiana.

"I can't help the defense I'm playing, they're saying the defenses are weak," Johnson said. "No one is saying anything about my 123 yards against then-8th ranked Nebraska team. They're not saying anything about Temple and Rutgers. They're not saying anything about 300-yard games; [no one else] had 300-yard games."

Despite the tough talk, Johnson, who has had plenty of opportunities to watch the other contenders since the Lions' season ended two weeks ago, has respect for his likely competition such as Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey and running back Willis McGahee and USC quarterback Carson Palmer.

"I've been watching them. They're great players and stuff," Johnson said. "I really evaluate how I match up against them, and some of those guys are really great players."

One doesn't have to read very far into his statements to realize he's talking about himself as well.