By
Pete Fiutak
|
CFN Heisman
Central
Post-Bowl Heisman Voting
1990 to 1999 |
1980 to 1989 |
1970 to 1979
It's now become a college football tradition to award the
Heisman Trophy, the premier individual prize in all of sports, in
between the end of the regular season and the bowls. Unfortunately,
the signature player of a given season often times isn't determined
until after the bowl game, and as everyone knows, one huge performance
on a national stage often means everything in the race.
In the 2007 battle, look at how Arkansas star Darren McFadden went from
also-ran to possible front-runner by blowing up against LSU when
everyone was watching. Missouri's Chase Daniel went from certain
finalist to out of the picture after struggling in the Big 12
Championship loss to Oklahoma. Yes, one big day on the national stage,
or one dud, is often the difference between winning and being a
footnote.
If the voting was done after the bowl games over the year, who would've won?
USC RB Reggie
Bush might have been a transcendent superstar in 2005, and he had a
whale of a Rose Bowl, but Texas QB Vince Young would've won if the
voting had been done after the national title game.
Sometimes the Heisman serves as a motivating factor in a bowl game for
the opposing defense, so
it's not always cut-and-dry that the winner would be clear after the
bowls like it does now. Even so, going back to 1970, when
the national title started being awarded after the bowls rather than
after the regular season, here are the last 36 Heisman winners and what
would've likely happened if the big prize was awarded after the season
was actually over.
2007 Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The Final Three Were ... 1) Tebow, 2) Darren McFadden, RB
Arkansas, 3) Colt Brennan, QB Hawaii
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Tim Tebow, QB
Florida
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1) Tebow, 2) White 3)
McFadden
This wouldn't have been a slam dunk, but considering Tebow barely beat
McFadden in a close battle, it's not like Tebow was the obvious choice.
Tebow wasn't bad in the 41-35 Capital One Bowl loss to Michigan,
completing
17-of-33
passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns, but he misfired late and
wasn't able to bring his Gators back. McFadden was great in the Cotton
Bowl against Missouri, running for 105 yards and a touchdown, but the
game was a disaster. With Houston Nutt off to Ole Miss, the team gave a
lifeless performance in the 38-7 loss. Brennan was used as a rag doll by
Georgia in the disastrous Sugar Bowl loss. Meanwhile, White completed
10-of-19 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns and ran 20 times for
150 yards as he led the Mountaineers to a 48-28 win over Oklahoma in the
Fiesta Bowl.
2006 Troy Smith, QB Ohio State
The Final Three Were ... 1) Smith, 2) Darren McFadden, RB
Arkansas, 3) Brady Quinn, QB Notre Dame
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Colt Brennan, QB
Hawaii
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1) Brennan, 2) Smith, 3)
McFadden
Troy
Smith won the Heisman in a landslide, but after completing just four of
14 passes for 35 yards with an interception in the BCS Championship
debacle against Florida, the voting would've been wide open. Darren
McFadden was fine against Wisconsin, but he wasn't special and his Hogs
lost. No. 3 in the voting was Brady Quinn, but his Irish
got whacked by LSU in the Sugar Bowl. West Virginia QB Pat White, and not
teammate Steve Slaton,
who was fourth in the voting, was the star against Georgia Tech in the
Gator Bowl, and Mike Hart's Michigan team got crushed by USC in the Rose
Bowl. That leaves Colt Brennan, who put up a record-setting season at
Hawaii with 58 touchdown passes, 5,549 yards and five rushing scores. He
tore apart Arizona State in the Hawaii Bowl throwing for 559 yards and
five touchdowns with an interception in the 41-24 win.
2005 Reggie Bush, RB USC
The Final Three Were ... 1)
Bush, 2)
Vince Young, QB Texas, 3) Matt Leinart, QB USC
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Vince Young, QB
Texas
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1) Young, 2) Bush, 3) Leinart
Reggie
Bush won the Heisman with relative ease, and he was fantastic in the
2006 Rose Bowl with
275 total yards, rushing for 82 yards and a
score, catching six passes for 95 yards, and cranking out 102 yards on kickoff
returns. But that was Vince Young's magnum opus. The Longhorn legend completed 30 of 40 passes
for 267 yards, and ran 19 times for 200 yards and three touchdowns, in the
Texas win. Matt Leinart was more than fine in the third slot completing
29 of 40 passes for 365 yards with a
touchdown and an interception against the Longhorns.
2004 Matt Leinart, QB USC
The Final Three Were ... 1) Leinart, 2) Adrian Peterson, RB
Oklahoma, 3) Jason White, QB Oklahoma
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Matt Leinart, QB USC
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1) Leinart, 2) Peterson, 3)
Alex Smith, QB Utah
No brainer. Leinart
completed 18 of 35 passes for 332 yards and five touchdown passes in the
55-19 win over the Sooners in the national title game played in the
Orange Bowl. Adrian Peterson ran 24 times for 82 yards in the loss to
the Trojans, but he couldn't do much with his team falling being so
quickly. Alex Smith led his Utah team to an unbeaten season and was
magnificent in the Fiesta Bowl win over Pittsburgh, completing 29 of 37
passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns, and running for 68 yards. He
originally finished fourth, and might have ended up moving up to second
after the bowls.
2003 Jason White, QB Oklahoma
The Final Three Were ... 1)
White, 2) Larry Fitzgerald, WR Pitt, 3)
Eli Manning, QB Ole Miss
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Matt Leinart, QB USC
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1)
Matt
Leinart, QB USC, 2) Manning, 3) Phil Rivers, QB NC State
This one's extremely debatable. White
completed 13 of 37
passes for 104 yards with two interceptions in the Sugar Bowl loss to
LSU and would've dropped out of the final three entirely. Larry
Fitzgerald caught just five passes for 75 yards
in the Continental Tire Bowl loss to Virginia. Eli Manning, who finished
third, might have ended up winning, or would've finished a
close second after
completing 22 of 31 passes for 259 yards and
two touchdowns with an interception,
and running for a score, in a Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma State, but
Ole Miss RB Tremaine Turner was the star of that game. Michigan's Chris
Perry finished fourth, Kansas State's Darren Sproles finished fifth, and
Leinart was sixth. The USC star led his team to an AP national title
with a Rose Bowl win over Michigan by
after completing
23 of 34 passes for 331 yards and three touchdowns. He also caught a
pass for a touchdown. In the third slot would've been NC State QB
Phil Rivers, who finished seventh in the voting, and completed
37 of 45 passes for 484 yards and five touchdowns in a 56-26 win
over Kansas in the Tangerine Bowl.
2002 Carson Palmer, QB USC
The Final Three Were ... 1) Palmer, 2) Brad Banks, QB Iowa, 3)
Larry Johnson, RB Penn State
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Carson Palmer, QB
USC
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1) Palmer, 2) Maurice Clarett,
RB Ohio State, 3) Johnson
Carson Palmer completed
21 of 31 passes for 304 yards and a touchdown in the win over Brad Banks
and Iowa in the 2003 Orange Bowl. Banks only completed 15 of 36 passes
for 204 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 36 yards, and Larry Johnson,
who finished third, only ran for 72 yards in a 13-9 Capital One Bowl
loss to Auburn. And then there's Maurice Clarett, the Ohio State
freshman who was the star of the national champion Buckeyes. The
touchdown machine was hurt throughout the year, and only ran for 47
yards in the Fiesta Bowl win over Miami, but he scored twice, including
the game-winning five-yard run in overtime, and his strip of Sean Taylor
after a turnover helped make him the signature player in the monster
upset.
2001 Eric Crouch, QB Nebraska
The Final Three Were ... 1)
Crouch, 2) Rex Grossman, QB Florida, 3)
Ken Dorsey, QB Miami
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ...
Rex
Grossman, QB Florida
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1)
Grossman,
2) Dorsey, 3) Joey Harrington, QB Oregon
This would've been a fun debate.
Rex Grossman got hosed, having lost to Eric Crouch by a mere 62 total points
despite having the far better season. Basically, he lost because he was
a sophomore. Now this is where it would get interesting. Brock Berlin
started for the Gators in the Orange Bowl against Maryland because
Grossman was being punished by Steve Spurrier, but would that have
happened if the Heisman was still up in the air? Grossman came off the
bench to complete 20 of 28 passes for
248 yards and four touchdowns in the blowout win. Meanwhile, Crouch ran
22 times for 114 yards in the Rose Bowl loss to Miami, but he only
completed five of 15 passes for 62 yards with an interception in the
37-14 loss. Here's where the argument kicks in. Ken Dorsey
finished a ridiculously close third in the voting, just 70 points behind
Grossman and 132 behind Crouch. Andre Johnson was the star in the Miami Rose Bowl
win,
but Dorsey was also fantastic completing 22 of 35 passes for 362 yards
and three touchdowns with an interception. After the bowls, Crouch
would've likely plummeted to fourth with Oregon's
Joey Harrington, who threw for 350 yards and four touchdowns in the
38-16 Fiesta Bowl win over Colorado, finishing behind Grossman and Dorsey.
2000 Chris Weinke, QB Florida State
The Final Three Were ... 1) Weinke, 2) Josh Heupel, QB Oklahoma,
3) Drew Brees, QB Purdue
The Likely Winner After The Bowls Would've Been ... Josh Heupel, QB
Oklahoma
The Final Three Likely Would've Been ... 1) Heupel, 2) Weinke, 3) Brees
In one of the better Heisman
battles, Chris Weinke ended up getting 1,628 total points to Josh Heupel's
1,552. Oklahoma beat FSU 13-2 in the 2001 Orange Bowl with Weinke
completing 25 of 51 passes for 274 yards with two interceptions, while
Heupel completed 25 of 39 passes for 214 yards and an interception.
However, Heupel got the win, and that might have been enough to get by
and win the prize. Drew Brees was third, and likely would've stayed
there after completing 23 of 39 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns
in the Rose Bowl loss to Washington.
Post-Bowl Heisman Voting
1900 to 1999 |
1980 to 1999 |
1970 to 1979