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Top 10 All-Time Heisman Trophy Snubs

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5. Auburn QB Pat Sullivan over Oklahoma RB Greg Pruitt (1971)

This is a classic case of a great teammate costing someone the Heisman.

Sullivan had a good, not great season (2012 YDS, 20 TD, 11 INT) and stunk up the joint (121 YDS, 2 INT) in a 31-7 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

Pruitt? He was a statistical monster (1,665 YDS, 9.4 AVG, 17 TD) that was hurt by the fact his quarterback, Jack Mildren, finished sixth in the voting while he finished third. Forty years later, we’re still trying to figure out how someone who averaged nearly 10 yards per carry didn’t win the bronze statue.

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4. South Carolina RB George Rogers over Pitt LB Hugh Green (1980)

The Heisman voters’ bias against defensive players was most-obvious in this instance, as Rogers – a South Carolina running back – won the award with a solid 1,781 yards and 14 touchdowns.

That would be worthy if it weren’t for Green’s insanely dominant senior year at Pitt. The linebacker was a three-time First Team All-American after being selected on the second team as a freshman. He compiled an eye-popping 17 sacks and 77 solo tackles as a senior. ESPN ranked him the 14th greatest college football player ever, yet he has no Heisman to show for it.

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3. Miami (FL) QB Gino Torretta over SDSU RB Marshall Faulk (1992)

Torretta had average numbers (3,060 yards, 19 touchdowns, seven interceptions) while Faulk was great (1,630 yards, 15 TDs) against defenses built to stop him after one of the top freshman seasons in NCAA history.

The ‘Canes’ QB benefited from the spotlight at Miami (FL), a.k.a. “Quarterback U,” which won its first 11 games before getting routed by Alabama in the national championship game – during a poor performance by Torretta.

But hey, Faulk got the last laugh after leaving San Diego State for a Hall of Fame career in the NFL while Torretta, well, didn’t. This vote needs a do-over. Badly.

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2. UCLA QB Gary Beban over USC RB O.J. Simpson (1967)

This was a head-scratcher for many reasons. UCLA quarterback Beban had just fair numbers, throwing for 1,359 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions while losing a classic game to Simpson’s rival USC.

In addition, Simpson capped the victory over the cross-town rival with a 64-yard, go-ahead touchdown that has gone down as one of the great plays in college football history – the definition of a Heisman moment. It handed the Bruins their first loss en route to an eventual national title for the Trojans.

Oh yeah, and Simpson ran for over 1,400 yards and averaged 5.0 yards per carry. Obviously, Simpson’s not getting a lot of sympathy these days despite the slight.

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1. Notre Dame QB Paul Hornung over Syracuse RB Jim Brown (1956)

The “Golden Boy” led Notre Dame in passing, rushing, touchdowns, punting and as a reliable return man. But Hornung’s Irish finished 2-8 and he had three touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Let those numbers soak in for a second.

Brown, who finished fifth in the voting (Johnny Majors was second), put forth one of the most-impressive seasons for a college football player in history. He ran for 986 yards and amassed 14 total touchdowns in just eight games for Syracuse.

This wasn’t just another Notre Dame player being overrated, this was blatant racism by the voters. Legendary sports writer Dick Schaap was so outraged he vowed to never vote for the Heisman again.

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12:03 PM on 12/5/2011
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  • Red Brick

    Jason White over Drew Brees

  • Juan Don

    Another snub will be Andrew Luck winning this year.

  • Jon Snow

    How can Charles Woodson over Peyton Manning not even get a mention? Peyton Manning not getting the Heisman that year is one of the biggest robberies in all of sports history.

    • H2oSkier

      Hardly. Woodson played both sides of the ball and his play ensured that tOSU went undefeated. Manning lost to FL and never even played for the sec championship. The bulk of Manning’s numbers that year came against teams like Vandy, Ole Miss, Miss St, South Car, and ARK ! !

      • dmpo

        WOW, what mis-information. Woodson played for co-national champ Michigan, Manning led #3 Tennessee undefeated until blown out by co-national champ Nebraska. Manning had big numbers winning big against defending national champ Florida.

        Did you get anything right.

      • cb

        Better do your homework before you reply, Manning and Tennessee won the SEC his senior year. Woodson winning the heisman was based on a couple of plays.

      • VegasChris

        Wow. You are a genius. Woodson did not play for tOSU; he played for Michigan. He was hardly as dominant in his games as a DB/WR as Manning was as QB.

        You state that Manning never played for SEC Championship. Actually Manning played in the 1997 SEC Championship in which TN beat Auburn, at which time Manning took the #3 Volunteers to play eventual National Champion Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

        Manning did not play MIssissippi State that year.

        But other than that….wait….no the rest of your post is nonsensical also.

      • Anonymous

        Woodson played 4 Michigan wolverines.Ohio State only wished that their cheating recriuters could have bribed Woodson to have played their.

      • Cuse44

        Woodson played for Michigan, btw…not, THE Overrated State University

      • Drew_12

        H20skier: woodson def played for michigan!

      • Gwydireagle

        Wrong. The Vols won the SEC championship that season.

      • materman01

        it was then as now the sec nuff said

    • Steven

      This is so true. How should a defensive back beat one of the best QBs in the history of the game?

  • mike anderson

    While it is true that only skill positions win, (defense and lineman have their own awards) , in 1980 Mike Singletary was the best choice. He took a minor school to the Cotton Bowl in the best division in football (Southwest Conference) . First and only time Baylor has had a 10 win season, and he carried them on his back. He had 35 tackles in ONE game ….

  • Tom

    Maxwell Award winner, UPI College Footballl Player of the year, and Sporting News College Football Player of the year: Ed Marinaro was a bigger Heisman snub than Pruitt. Marinaro was the first to rush for more then 4,000 yards in a career, led the nation in rushing 2 years in a row, set 16 NCAA record. Sullivan won because of where he played, period.

    Voting Summary:
    Sullivan 1597
    Marinaro 1445
    Pruitt 586

    Pruitt??? PRUITT????

    • SouthTexan

      Marinaro got robbed. Remember that 4000 yards was in 3 years–Freshman couldn’t play in those days. Being in the Ivy league didn’t help, but he did show he was no fluke with a decent pro career with MN, and Jets before injuries ended it.

    • ’bout time

      YES PRUITT!!! If he hadn’t shared the the backfield and carries with two other 1000 yd rushers in Jack Mildren and Joe Wylie, and a fullback, Leon Crosswhite, who also ran for over 600 yds, Pruitt’s stats would have greatly exceed Marinaro’s! That OU backfield still holds the per game rushing record of 472.4 yds. Pruitt also averaged 9.4 yds per carry!

    • Anonymous

      Pruitt and Nebraska quarterback Jerry Tagge should have ranked higher than Sullivan or Marinaro. Unfortunately both were on teams loaded with stars.

    • Guy

      The Heisman is for the best performance for the current season. Greg Pruitt averaged almost 10 yards per carry!

    • Joe

      Could not agree more.  Back in the day, I did some research on the voting.  As I recall, there were 4 or 5 sections of the country that voted (East, Midwest, Far West, Southwest and Southeast) and each voter had to list three players (1st, 2nd and 3rd).  Ed won the first three, did ok in the Southwest and didn’t make the top three in the Southeast.  The writers there favored Terry Beasely and Johnny Musso among others.   ABC even put announcer Bud Palmer (a Princeton grad) on to speak to the bizarre voting results,  Also, keep in mind that Ed’s records stood for many years and he was able to play only three years due to the Ivy restrictions against freshman eligibility at that time.

  • s2dsa

    how about Case Keenum not even invited to NY for the ceremony! the guy set major NCAA passing records, yes, against lower competition, but he at least deserved an invite

    • thatdude

      H*** no!!!! See Andre Ware and David Klingler!!!!

  • Anonymous

    I like how everybody says look what Hornung did for stats for the TEAM. You notice it is not college stats for that year but for the team that was terrible minus one heroic win, come on people, know the facts.

  • Jim

    What about Troy Davis for Iowa State? The only man to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season and not win a Heisman. He rushed for over 2,000 yards in a season twice.

    • thatdude

      Maybe so……but he couldn’t speak to save his life. There was no way they were going to allow him to get up to the podium and stutter his way through an acceptance speach.

      • krbrid

        Heisman is for best performance on the field…not behind the podium…Troy Davis certainly deserved the Heisman.

  • jmills

    Bo Jackson over Lorenzo White

  • BROWNING

    You forgot the worst of all, Archie Griffin over Anthony Davis. If the voting would have happened after he singlehandedly beat the Irish, he would have won going away.

    • I

      I assumed that would be the #1 snub. Remember AD’s 4 TDs in Rose Bowl against “The” Ohio State and Griffith’s 42 or so yards in one of the legion of Woody’s customary Rose Bowl defeats

  • sportsfan

    What about Doug Flutie over Keith Byers in 1984

    • KJamm21

      That should be #2 all time!!!

    • CFBfan

      A long bomb and a receiver being at the right place at the right time…

  • Rockman

    1.) Brown
    2.) Marinaro
    3.) OJ
    4.) Faulk
    5.) Brown

  • Jay

    Eddie George over Tommie Frazier…Biggest snub of all time!!!!

    • KJamm21

      Yes indeed!!!!!

    • Smwest95

      The fact that George over Frazier is not #1 makes this list the biggest snub of all time

  • CThorn

    The worst of all was Hornung. His (and the teams) stats were terrible. He won because (a) he was from Notre Dame and (b) Brown was black. This one was just slightly worse than Torretta winning.

  • Anonymous

    Eric Crouch should definitely be in the list but for Woody Dantzler not Rex Grossman. Dantzler was the first player to ever throw for 2,000 (2360) and rush for 1,000 (1,004) in a single season and the only player to do it in an 11 game season. He had 850 more passing yards than Crouch, only 100 fewer rushing yards, and more total TDs (27-25) despite playing in one less game. But, since the hypesman has long since moved away from its original intention (awarding the best individual player in a given season) and is now almost always given to the best player on one the best, if not the best team, Dantzler didn’t even get an invite to NYC.

  • Anonymous

    Ed Marinaro runner-up to Pat Sullivan for the Heisman Trophy in 1971,

  • Iceberg Ferg

    Woodson played for Michigan….not OSU

    and I would take Chuck Muncie or Anthony Davis over Archie any day!

    Certainly Greg Pruitt over Pat Sullivan…….

    Everyone knows who the real winners should have been.

    • KJamm21

      Iceberg,
      You hit the nail on the head! No way in TWIN HELL Pat Sullivan beats out Greg Pruitt, was anthony Davis EVER cosidered for the Heisman? That, in and of itself is robbery!!!

  • paleotex

    Reggie Bush over Vince Young should be included. When they went head to head, VY had the monster game.

    • Sur

      Vince Young proved them wrong. USC had two Heisman winners on their team at the Rose Bowl that year. The Eyes of Texas where upon Vince Young.

  • DOBOIFRESH!

    DMac Darren McFadden over Troy Smith! Only reason he didnt win was because he was a soph. Then the next year they turn around and give it to a soph. for the 1st time! Tim Tebow! but dmac clearly had the better year vs Troy Smith!

  • dk

    reggie bush over vince young, vy proved who the real heisman was in the championship!

  • Jesse

    Ingram over Gerhart

  • 73 Sooner

    Here to set the record straight…. First you guy are all idiots who do no research other than hanging at the bar with your cronies… Now that we have that settled: Here are some clues for you… It would be George Rogers over Hershel Wallker not whoever from Pitt…. 28 year old Wienke over Josh Heiple…. Pat Sullivan over Greg Pruit, call it how you see it,,, a white boy QB from the South over a black man in the midwest… I am not even sure that let blacks come to the games in the south much less play in them… and last but not least Matt Leinhart over Adrian Peterson the only difference between Leinhart and Reggie Bush was Leinhart paid all his money back and did’nt shoot his mouth off…

  • KJamm21

    Jim Brown should have been the first black player to win the Heisman……….Unfortunately in 1956, narrow minds prevailed and, not saying that he wasn’t a great player, Paul Hornung was “given” the award because he played for Nortre Dame. He surely didn’t deserve it.

    • Andrew

      Agree then Paul Hornung didn’t deserve that at all, but I don’t think Jim was the best RB in ’56. Tommy McDonald, Oklahoma who averaged a whole yard more per carry on an unbeaten Sooner team that was part of the 47 game winning streak. He had 17 td’s that year and also had 6 int’s on defense and had more yards from scrimmage then Brown. Take into account that the center/LB for the sooners, Jerry Tubbs, took 4th, 1 lower then McDonald, and you have a ridiculous team.

  • krb

    You have to place Jason White’s win into persepctive on what he accomplished after suffering not one but two season ending, if not near career ending, knee injuries ..back to back seasons…then to come back and have the final season that he had was nothing short of miraculous. The knee injuries are what kept him out of the pro’s, not his ability to play.

  • bob

    In 1980 Rogers over Herschel Walker was a bigger snub than over Huge Green, Herschel deserved it more.

  • Cybulski

    Troy Smith over Darren Mcfadden his sophmore year. Just the fact that he was runner up twice was BS.

  • toddzilla

    charlie ward over tommie frazier?

  • StatHistorian

    In 1964, Tulsa’s Howard Twilley losing to another ND Irish overrated player, John Hurate. Twilley, the first receiver to catch more than 70 balls–and that was the year before. Hurate, IMO, won it cause he played for the Irish–just like Paul Hornung–who should have lost it to Johnny Majors.

  • HDWII

    If Eric Dickenson didn’t have to share the backfield with Craig James, he would have blown away the competition that year with astronomical numbers.

    • JR

      Both Dickerson, not Dickenson, and James got paid big bucks to play at SMU. Dickerson didn’t deserve consideration for the award.

  • HDWII

    Charles White over Billy Sims? Sims should have been the 2nd person to win the Hiesman twice and he had to share the backfield with 2 other runners in the wishbone.

  • JR

    I will buy Fitzpatrick, Pruitt and OJ. And of course Jim Brown, but he was a few years ahead of his time as a black player (i.e., Ernie Davis). Karris and Douglas were defensive lineman…they don’t win Heisman trophies. It’s a QB, running back, or defensive back that is a huge return specialist and maybe does some offensive formations on occasion that win the Heisman. Chuck Muncie (started off 0-2), Crouch’s year no one deserved it. Marshall Faulk went to SDSU. Lattner and Hornung were ND. And you forgot Billy Sims.

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