College football: Ranking every Heisman Trophy winner

47. Ranking every Heisman Trophy Winner: Bruce Smith, Minnesota Golden Gophers football

With his father being a former star for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Bruce Smith, a coveted high school star, would also attend the school. Well, the conclusion proved to be correct, as not only did Smith head to play at his father’s alma mater, but he also became one of the best players in the history of the football program.

The winner of the 1941 Heisman Trophy, Smith was the captain of the squad that season, a year that saw Minnesota win their second of back-to-back National Championships. An incredible fast runner for a man his size, Smith was able to run around and through the defense, and teams really had no answer for him once he started going downhill.

Nicknamed “Boo” by his peers, Smith was an All-American during that 1941 season, and beat out a future Heisman Trophy winner in Angelo Bertelli from Notre Dame for the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first player in the history of the school to win one. After his career, he became a Navy pilot, had a short stint in the NFL, and eventually, the school retired his No. 54 jersey, though they did so after he had passed on.

46. Ranking every Heisman Trophy Winner: Chris Weinke, Florida State Seminoles football

One of the biggest quarterback recruits coming out of high school, Chris Weinke almost never played college football, as he was a second-round pick in the 1990 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. However, he did meet with Bobby Bowden at Florida State before turning pro, and Bowden said he would always have a scholarship at the school as long as he was there.

Well, seven years later, Weinke arrived back on campus in Tallahassee and would go on to be one of the more unlikely Heisman stories of all-time. After taking over as a starter during his sophomore season, Weinke became one of the best signal-callers in all of college football, leading the Seminoles to a national title as a junior, and setting up the stage for him to make a run at the Heisman during his final season on campus.

Weinke was successful in his race for a Heisman Trophy, as he threw for over 4,000 yards as a senior, and once again led the Seminoles to a spot in the national title game. Though Florida State would lose out to Oklahoma by the score of 13-2, Weinke took home all the hardware, including the Maxwell, Unitas, and O’Brien awards to go along with his Heisman. At 28-years old, he is the oldest Heisman winner in history, and he actually carved out a bit of a pro career once he was done.