Dec 30, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of the 1968 Heisman Trophy of Southern California Trojans tailback O.J. Simpson (not pictured) at Heritage Hall. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Ranking the last 15 Heisman Trophy winners, including Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, Johnny Manziel and Marcus Mariota and No. 1 is sure to generate some debate.
The Heisman Trophy is the most significant individual honor that can be awarded a college football player and the last 15 Heisman winners rank among the best we’ve seen since Jaw Berwanger won the first Heisman in 1935.
Since the start of the BCS era, we’ve seen plenty of great Heisman Trophy winners and most of them were quarterbacks. Only two running backs since the turn of the century won, with Mark Ingram the most recent in 2008, and with the other 13 going to signal-callers.
USC, Oklahoma, and Florida State have all had multiple Heisman Trophy winners within this 15-year span with the Trojans leading with three winners, all coming in a four-year span under then-head coach Pete Carroll during their dynasty days.
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Trying to rank the best players in college football over the last 15 years is no easy task.
The first place to start is with their stats. You don’t win the Heisman without putting up prodigious numbers.
Second, most Heisman winners are competing for national championships, but the Heisman winners who played integral parts for championship winners are given an extra boost.
Many of these Heisman winners were taken with high picks in the NFL Draft, but their careers at the next level aren’t taken into consideration when ranking the players based on their Heisman resume.
Without further delay, here are the last 15 Heisman Trophy winners, ranked. Who is the ultimate Heisman winner among Heisman winners?
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2006 Heisman Stats: 203/311, 2,542 yards, 30 touchdowns, 6 interceptions
Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the nation since week one, and never slipped up, taking down four ranked opponents, two of which were ranked No. 2 at the time. In his senior season, Troy Smith led his team to a 12-0 record, and fell short to the Florida Gators in the title game, lead by Chris Leak.
The defense was great for the Buckeyes that season, and in turn that took a lot of pressure off of Troy Smith. Only giving up 10 points a game, Ohio State was outscoring their opponents by about 26 points a game. That season, the Buckeyes scored 34-plus points nine times. Now, Ohio State might have pushed leads so high that the running game just took over, and Smith’s stats weren’t near what they could have been.
That Ohio State team had a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, with Antonio Pittman and Chris “Beanie” Wells toting the rock, to go along with Ted Ginn Jr., Anthony Gonzalez, Brian Robiskie, and even Brian Hartline.
He wasn’t that much of a scrambler in the year he won the Heisman, only taking off 72 times for 204 yards and a touchdown, pretty standard for a quarterback now.
While he was the clear runaway winner in 2006, earning almost triple the amount of votes as Darren McFadden of Arkansas, and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame. But compared to others on this list, his stats don’t jump out at you, and his season was faltered by a big-time loss in the national championship game.
Next: 14. Jason White
2003 Heisman Stats: 278/451, 3,846 yards, 40 touchdowns, 10 interceptions
After dealing with injuries that hampered his abilities, Jason White led the Sooners to a 12-2 record, dropping their final two games of the season, the Big 12 Championship Game vs. No. 13 ranked Kansas State, and the Sugar Bowl was No. 2 ranked LSU.
Slinging 40 touchdowns, he threw 10 interceptions, which on this list, is a bit on the higher side. The third highest scoring offense in the nation that year, scoring 42 points a game, and giving up on 15 points a game, good for fifth in the nation.
When you have such a large point differential, that’s going to give your offense much wiggle room to run some plays. This offense was highly reliant upon White, as there wasn’t a lot of talent compared to some of these others mentioned in this list.
White’s go-to guy was Mark Clayton, who had almost 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns, and went on to become a first round pick in the NFL Draft. He had two solid options in the backfield with Kejuan Jones and Renaldo Works, but outside of those three, there weren’t too many explosive guys that really helped White get to this position, which would make him a stronger candidate.
Next: 13. Chris Weinke
2000 Heisman Stats: 266/431, 4,167 yards, 33 touchdowns, 11 interceptions
Dating back to the year 2000, college football has changed a bit, with a heavy vertical and passing attack typically leading the way for most teams. Yet back then, Chris Weinke was slinging the ball like a 2015 air raid attack quarterback, on top of a pretty solid run game that year.
We saw Travis Minor do it all, Snoop Minnis had himself a senior season as well, earning consensus All-American honors. A sophomore by the name of Anquan Boldin also started to emerge as a staple of the offense. The senior quarterback finished the season 11-2, with more than 4,000 passing yards, averaging 10 yards an attempt.
There’s still some controversy to this day about Florida State’s appearance in the 2001 National Championship Game. Miami and Florida State ended the season at 11-1 and despite losing to No. 7 Miami, the Seminoles got more love from the BCS computers, placing them in the title game over Miami.
Florida State ended up losing in the championship game the Oklahoma Sooners by a final score of 13-2, and ended Weinke’s career as a Seminole.
Next: 12. Eric Crouch
2001 Heisman Stats: 105/189, 1,510 yards, 7 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 203 carries, 1,115 yards, 18 touchdowns
Crouch has the rare distinction of winning the Heisman despite throwing more interceptions than touchdowns. That’s likely never to happen again. But where Crouch made his mark was as a runner in Nebraska’ option attack.
He perfected the option and no one seemed to know how to stop it. He led a rushing attack that averaged more 300 yards a game.
In an era when the option was dying and the spread passing attacks were spreading across the country, Nebraska’s commitment to the option was almost a novelty that we could have taken it for granted if not for Crouch’s game-breaking ability.
The one-two punch of Crouch and Dahrran Diedrick seemed near impossible to stop, until the Cornhuskers got toward the end of the season. Nebraska ended up going 11-2, losing their final two games to No. 14 Colorado and No. 1 Miami in the Rose Bowl.
Next: 11. Mark Ingram
2009 Heisman Stats: 271 carries, 1,658 yards, 17 touchdowns
Mark Ingram narrowly edged Stanford’s Toby Gerhart for the Heisman in 2009 after leading his Crimson Tide to a perfect 14-0 record, taking down the Texas Longhorns in the National Championship.
Ingram was the first Heisman winner in program history and when he was healthy, you could count him picking up picking up the tough yards on third-and-two and being able to bust it loose for a 40-yard touchdown.
With Greg McElroy at quarterback, Ingram was asked to do a lot to take the pressure off. And when you have a 5’9″ 215-pound back running the show on the offense, you’re going to have a happy quarterback.
This was a great Alabama team, and probably some of Nick Saban’s finest work at Alabama. But in 2009, this Heisman could have been more of a team success award, as Gerhart ran for 2,000 yards and we had the best chance since Charles Woodson to see a defender win with Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh finishing fourth in the voting.
Next: 10. Robert Griffin III
2011 Heisman Stats: 291/402, 4,293 yards, 36 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 179 carries, 699 yards, 10 touchdowns
Robert Griffin III just made throwing a football look easy. A 60-yard bomb looked like it was nothing, leaving his hand so softly, with a perfect spiral for the receiver to come down with the throw.
But looking back at his rushing totals, you would have thought he would have had better numbers on the ground, considering his speed and offensive awareness. In 2011, he ended with just 3.9 rushing average. And surprisingly, he only ran for more than 80 yards on the ground twice in 2011.
Nonetheless, he threw for more than 4,000 yards and only had seven interceptions on the year. He led an offense that averaged 570 yards. We knew it was going to be a special year for Griffin after week One when he exploded on the scene, going 21 of 27 passing and throwing five touchdowns in a dramatic win. At one point, he had 19 touchdowns to only one interception.
Baylor ended up going 10-3 on the season, with a stunning loss to Kansas State, and then two blowout losses vs. Texas A&M and Oklahoma. While his team might not have had the best season for a Heisman Trophy winner, Griffin was an electrifying athlete and is largely responsible for helping Art Briles turn Baylor into the program they are today.
Next: 9. Johnny Manziel
2012 Heisman Stats: 295/434, 3,706 yards, 26 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, 201 carries, 1,410 yards, 21 touchdowns
A redshirt freshman, Johnny Manziel, took home the Heisman in 2012 for the first time ever after captivating the nation with his improvisational skills. We’ve seen mobile quarterbacks before, but none performing at the level, both with the talent and the confidence, that Manziel did.
He was elusive in the pocket, and seemingly too slippery and elusive that defenses couldn’t corral him, even when the numbers completely outnumbers him. Manziel was responsible for 47 touchdowns on the year and broke SEC records held by Cam Newton that were once held by Tim Tebow. That’s good company to be in.
Manziel led the Aggies to a 11-2 mark on the season, but the biggest win of the year for Texas A&M in their first year in the SEC was when he accounted for more than 500 yards of offense and went into Tuscaloosa and beat No. 1 Alabama.
He then went on to lead his team to a Cotton Bowl victory over the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners.
Next: 8. Jameis Winston
2013 Heisman Stats: 257/384, 4,057 yards, 40 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 88 carries, 219 yards, 4 touchdowns
As a redshirt freshmen, Jameis Winston took the reigns, and led his Florida State Seminoles to a perfect 14-0 record, national championship and was the second straight freshman to win the Heisman. Florida State was the preseason No. 10 team, but the Seminoles climbed their way to the top because of the freshman phenom.
This offense was deadly, averaging 51 points per game. And it’s not like their strength of schedule in the ACC was weak, either. They had four top 25 opponents in the regular season, taking down No. 25 Maryland, No. 3 Clemson, No. 7 Miami, and No. 20 Duke along the way before beating Auburn in the BCS Championship Game.
Of course, that was a special team with a lot of talent. So much talent, that every offensive starter in the 2013 BCS Championship Hame made their way onto an NFL roster. That includes Devonta Freeman and Karlos Williams in the backfield, Kelvin Benjamin and Rashad Greene at receiver and Nick O’Leary at tight end and an offensive line full of All-American and All-ACC performers.
And when you think back on Winston’s Heisman season, there’s one drive that stands out above the rest. The game-winning drive to push the Seminoles past Auburn in the title game when he threw the game-winning touchdown to Benjamin in the closing seconds. What a drive to end the final BCS National Championship in college football history.
Next: 7. Matt Leinart
2004 Heisman Stats: 269/412, 3,322 yards, 33 touchdowns, 6 interceptions
Matt Leinart led his team to a perfect 13-0 record in 2004, sealing it with a win over Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game.
This was a loaded USC team, with the one-two punch of Lendale White and next year’s Heisman winner, Reggie Bush, to go along with some tall weapons on the outside in Dwayne Jarrett, Steve Smith and Dominique Byrd.
Their defense complemented the incredible offense, allowing only 13 points a game. With their high-powered offense, that’s allowing the signal caller to do almost whatever he wants.
USC put up 40-plus points in seven games that season, and constantly blew out their opponents, with an average margin of victory of nearly 25 points per game.
Next: 6. Carson Palmer
2002 Heisman Stats: 309/489, 3,942 yards, 33 touchdowns, 10 interceptions
All but four opponents on USC’s schedule in 2002 season were ranked, which included three ranked non-conference games vs. No. 18 Colorado, No. 25 Kansas State, and No. 7 Notre Dame. This non-conference schedule also included the Auburn Tigers, who went out to finish the season out at 9-4.
This was a two-loss team, but Palmer still led this team to the Orange Bowl, in a convincing 38-17 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes. Despite the two losses, both of them came from ranked opponents, on the road, ending in a one possession game.
At the time of the Heisman voting, he beat Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, Penn State’s Larry Johnson, Miami’s Willis McGahee and Ken Dorsey. Palmer lead an offense that averaging nearly 35 points a game and had two 1,000 yards receivers in Mike Williams and Keary Colbert, with Williams earning consensus All-American honors.
Unlike many other quarterbacks on this list, Palmer didn’t have the mobility, he would just beat you with his smarts and his arm. Although he did pick up four rushing touchdowns on the ground.
Next: 5. Marcus Mariota
2014 Heisman Stats: 304/445, 4,454 yards, 42 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 135 carries, 770 yards, 15 touchdowns
Some may say Marcus Mariota was part of a system and the system was designed for his wide receivers to get wide open so he didn’t have to make difficult throws, but Mariota proved to be a flawless passer. He only threw four interceptions to 42 touchdowns and when he threw an interception it was usually because of a deflected pass or something weird happening. His decision making and ball security were unrivaled.
But even without his passing game, it was his craft as a read-option expert. While he did have some amazing running backs that could go the distance on virtually every play, Mariota knew that offense inside and out, and could read a defense to perfection.
Oregon finished 13-2 on the season, slipping at home vs. Arizona and losing to Ohio State in the first College Football Playoff National Championship Game. He had 57 total touchdowns on the year, which is the third most in college football history.
Next: 4. Tim Tebow
2007 Heisman Stats: 234/350, 3,286 yards, 32 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 210 carries, 895 yards, 23 touchdowns
Tim Tebow was must-see TV during his four years with the Florida Gators. We saw him run the spread offense of Urban Meyer to perfection. He could run you over like a fullback on one play, throw a jump pass on another or throw it to Percy Harvin or Riley Cooper.
Tebow threw for a touchdown in every game his Heisman season and rushed for a touchdown in every game to finish with 55 touchdowns.
There was really no running game outside of Tebow and being the tough runner he was, led in both carries and yards. But Tebow had a lot of great weapons to throw to in Harvin, Cooper, Louis Murphy, Andre Caldwell and tight end Aaron Hernandez.
A huge blemish for Tebow is Florida suffered three losses in the regular season, all to unranked SEC opponents at the time, and then a loss to Michigan in the Capital One Bowl. But what he did for this team, and the type of energy and character he brought to the team, are unrivaled to a lot of these guys on this list.
Next: 3. Sam Bradford
2008 Heisman Stats: 328/483, 4,720 yards, 50 touchdowns, 8 interceptions
This Oklahoma team with Bradford behind center and Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray in the backfield, with Joaquin Iglesias, Jermaine Gresham, and Ryan Broyles out wide was filthy.
The Sooners averaged nearly 550 yards of total offense each game and this offense goes down in the record books as one of the most explosive offenses ever, scoring more than 50 points a game and scoring more than 60 points in five games.
Bradford threw for 50 touchdowns, which is more than any other quarterback on this list and he threw the ball nearly 500 times and only had eight interceptions.
Oklahoma dropped two games in 2008, one to No. 5 Texas and another to No. 1 Florida in the BCS National Championship Game.
Next: 2. Reggie Bush
2005 Heisman Stats: 200 carries, 1,740 yards, 16 touchdowns
Reggie Bush was a physical specimen at USC. There are too many highlights of him hitting the perimeter, cutting back inside to reverse field, and weave his way down the field and into the end zone. That just seemed to be something you could expect to see out of him on a weekly basis.
While he may no longer physically have his Heisman Trophy after having to vacate it due to NCAA sanctions, he is still one of the greatest to ever win and it’s not like fans have to forget it actually happened. We can’t forget the 500-plus all-purpose yards he had against Fresno State when he looked like a player from a video game doing anything he wanted to do on the field while a defense tried to slow him but failed miserably.
Averaging nearly nine yards a carry, Bush could have produced even bigger numbers if he didn’t split carries with Lendale White, who had 197 carries for 1,302 yards and 24 touchdowns. Although he served as a compliment in the ground-and-pound game, the carries that were split definitely meant that Bush would have eclipsed 2,000 yards on the season.
He was also pretty dynamic in the passing game and could have been an All-American receiver if he wasn’t a running back, with just under 500 yards to give him more than 2,200 yards of total offense. But there’s more. He was also the kick and punt returner for the Trojans, and he was one who could take anything back to the house. With 494 yards in kick returns, and 179 yards in the punt return game, Bush had 2,890 all-purpose yards.
While he might have won the Heisman Trophy, he did not win the National Championship in his Heisman year, losing to Texas in a thriller.
Next: 1. Cam Newton
2010 Heisman Stats: 185/280, 2,854 yards, 30 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 264 carries, 1,473 yards, 20 touchdowns
Cam Newton only played one year with the Auburn Tigers, but what a year it was. The former backup to Tebow at Florida and junior college transfer turned in one of the best offensive seasons of all-time in 2010.
Newton led Auburn to an undefeated 14-0 record to win the SEC and beat the Oregon Ducks in the 2010 BCS National Championship. The 6-5, 230-pound quarterback accounted for 50 touchdowns on the year to break many of Tebow’s single-season records in the process.
His lowest quarterback rating in that year, was 107 vs. LSU, where he threw for 86 yards, and no touchdowns. But it’s not all about his arm, as he ran for more than 200 yards in leading his Tigers to a 24-17 and this play encapsulated his year.
He had six games with more than 150 yards rushing and that’s what made him so dangerous. He wasn’t putting up ridiculous numbers through the air, often throwing the ball fewer than 20 times per game, but it was his efficiency, and high football IQ and compete level that led his team to a championship.
You might have been able to hold him in the passing game, but when he’s fleeing from the pocket, or running a read option, there was no stopping Newton, the best Heisman winner of the last 15 years.