Greatest college football player born in each state

Dec 13, 2014; New York, NY, USA; Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota kisses the Heisman Trophy during a press conference at the New York Marriott Marquis after winning the Heisman Trophy. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Certain US states produce more great football players than others, but stars come from all over. We select the best college football player born in each state.

Sure, you can name some of the greatest players in college football history that hail from recruiting hotbeds like Texas, Florida, Ohio and California.

Dozens (if not hundreds) of players from those four states alone have been All-Americans, each boasts multiple Heisman Trophy winners, and you can make a solid case for several home-state players that could be considered among the best to ever play the game.

But stars can come from anywhere.

All-time greats Jonathan Ogden and Andrew Luck are among the best players born in Washington D.C..

And several of the best players of all-time were born outside U.S. borders, including Ted Hendricks (Guatemala), Terry Kinard (Germany), Bronko Nagurski (Canada), Robert Griffin III (Japan), Tim Tebow (Philippines), and Frank Sinkwich (Croatia), among others.

There have been Heisman winners from Kansas and Maryland, All-Americans from North Dakota, South Dakota and Connecticut, and players that impressed enough in college to become first round NFL Draft picks from Maine, Montana, and Wyoming.

You can probably guess the best player born in Hawai’i (Hint: he won the Heisman last year), and Georgia should be pretty obvious, but who is the best player born in Rhode Island, Vermont, Nevada or Delaware?

With that in mind, we take a look at the greatest college football player born in each state.

*Note: Statistics used in the pages that follow come from Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise stated. In some cases, stats from bowl games may be used that are not officially recognized by the NCAA. 

Next: Begin Slideshow