NCAA Football: 25 Heisman Trophy finalists who should have won in hindsight
By John Scimeca
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is one of the most decorated and most accomplished passers in NFL history. He has passed for over 5,000 yards five separate times in his career (no other NFL quarterback has done this more than once) and he holds several NFL records: most career pass completions, best career completion percentage and most career passing yards.
The 40-year-old is now in his 19th NFL season and shows few signs of slowing down. As the owner of one Super Bowl ring and the leader of a Saints team that has come agonizingly close in the past two seasons, Brees is arguably one of the top quarterbacks to ever play the game.
So, how did Drew Brees only finish fourth in the 1999 Heisman voting as a junior at Purdue?
In his third year as a Boilermaker, Brees threw for 3,909 yards, 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. As a senior, Brees would lead Purdue to its first Rose Bowl appearance in 34 years. That year, he finished third in the Heisman voting, despite slightly lower passing numbers.
In what is a clear trend on this list of Heisman near-misses, Brees piloted a team that only went 7-5 in 1999 (although the Boilermakers did beat powers such as Notre Dame and Michigan). It is clear that the team success part of the Heisman hurt Brees in 1999, perhaps unfairly so.
Ron Dayne ran away with the 1999 Heisman, rushing for more than 2,000 yards and averaging 6.0 yards per carry. Maybe just as importantly, his Wisconsin squad was on its way to a Rose Bowl appearance (where the Badgers would defeat Stanford) to finish the season with 10 wins.
Joe Hamilton of Georgia Tech and Michael Vick of Virginia Tech, two accomplished dual-threat quarterbacks, finished ahead of Brees in the 1999 voting. Though many pundits may have overlooked Brees as a “system quarterback” under head coach Joe Tiller, other observers might have realized that they were watching the beginning of a storied NFL career.