NCAA Football: 25 Heisman Trophy finalists who should have won in hindsight

As the NCAA’s most prestigious award since 1935, the Heisman Trophy has had many close calls. Here’s a list of 25 players who should have won in hindsight.

The Heisman Trophy is an annual showcase of the best of college football. In its mission statement, it’s an award for the best college football player each year. While hindsight may be 20/20, there is a certain degree of difficult judgments that the award’s voters are forced to make each year. How should one best compare the best players in college football with each other?

From the Heisman Trophy’s official website:

"“The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. The winners of the trophy epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work.”"

There is a debate that often centers around the wording of “the most outstanding” instead of “the most valuable player” of a team. What it has meant in practice is that it’s often the quarterback or the running back on one of the nation’s best teams.

In compiling this list of the 25 best players who should have won the Heisman, a few things stand out.

How much should the team’s success be accounted for? Can a dominant interior defensive lineman, a middle linebacker or a wide receiver have as much impact on the gridiron as a game-changing quarterback?

Picking a Heisman Trophy winner is never easy

Should season-long statistics be the most important indicator or should performances in the season’s biggest games have just as much importance? Should any kind of career-long consideration be given for outstanding players in one given season?

These questions and more will continue to plague college football fans for as long as the Heisman Trophy continues its annual recognition of the best player.

While some names may be more familiar to you than others, it’s worth remembering that the Downtown Athletic Club began this award in 1935 for the best college football player “east of the Mississippi.” After expanding its geographic reach the following season, the award continues to stir controversy, discussions, and feelings from fans and media voters alike each year.

Here’s a list of the 25 top players to never have received the award:

First of all, consider how cool his nicknames are: “The Merchant of Menace” and “the Bard of Staten Island.” You would think that Shakespeare might have gotten tired of the endless quips about his famous namesake, but perhaps not.

Second, are we going to pretend that Jay Berwanger, a running back from the University of Chicago, deserved this more than Shakespeare? Of course not. Although he played in a much different era than today, Berwanger gained 477 yards on the ground in 1935 (an average of 4.0 yards per carry).

Third, Shakespeare later went on to serve as an infantry captain in World War II, even earning a Bronze Star during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944.

Shakespeare’s most famous exploit was a keying a Fighting Irish comeback against an undefeated Ohio State team in 1935. After the Buckeyes jumped to a 13-0 lead, Notre Dame clawed back in the fourth quarter and trailed 13-12 late in the game.

After Notre Dame’s starting quarterback was injured, Shakespeare threw one incomplete pass before his second throw was on the mark, finding Wayne Milner in the end zone for an improbable 18-13 victory in front of 81,000 fans.

Apparently, in 1969, the AP conducted a poll to decide the “Game of the Century” as part of the centennial celebration of college football. Voters selected this 1935 Notre Dame comeback against Ohio State.

On another interesting note, this was the first-ever Heisman Trophy. This was far back enough in the annals of college football history that reliable statistics are difficult to find for star players such as Notre Dame’s Shakespeare.

Shakespeare, who was also Notre Dame’s punter, was the first player to be drafted in Pittsburgh Steelers history in the first official NFL Draft in 1936.