Top 5 Heisman Winners: Cam Newton, Joe Burrow the Elite QBs
This past Saturday, college football’s top prize, the Heisman Trophy, was awarded to Colorado WR/DB Travis Hunter. Hunter had one of the closest margins of voting victory in the trophy’s history, beating out Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty by less than 200 votes. Hunter and Jeanty had stellar seasons that made them more than worthy of the Heisman, but who has the best? Here are the top 5 Heisman seasons in college football history.
5. Cam Newton, QB, Auburn (2010)
Despite just playing his 3rd and final year with 1 Auburn team after a failed career at Florida, Newton turned things around in a heartbeat, starting all 14 games as Auburn went all the way to a BCS national championship in 2010. With almost 2900 passing yards for 30 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions, Newton dominated the ground game as much as the aerial attack, with an additional 1473 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns. That’s right- 50 touchdowns in one season across two forms. The only QB today to do something like that is Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, and he was only a brief Heisman contender!
Now, Newton’s lone season with Auburn wasn’t without some bit of drama. On one side, he led the Tigers back from a seemingly insurmountable 24-0 deficit against archrivals Alabama in that year’s Iron Bowl. The other bit of drama came from an alleged pay-to-play scheme that could’ve had Newton end up at Mississippi State, which would’ve been a huge NCAA violation. But given the NCAA’s unpredictability in such schemes, no further action was taken, even though it was sophisticated enough to also involve Newton’s own father.
4. Marcus Allen, RB, USC (1981)
Even before this year, there were Heisman upsets back in the day. USC RB Marcus Allen proved that after knocking off Georgia RB Herschel Walker, whose 1980 season culminated in the Dawgs’ 2nd national championship. Walker’s 1980 season is still regarded as one of the greatest freshman campaigns in college football history. Although USC as a team wasn’t quite what you’d expect to produce a Heisman winner, a 9-3 record, and a thorough bowl loss to Penn State, Allen still tore up the field, running for a total of 2342 yards and 22 touchdowns while also having a lone receiving TD from QB John Mazur.
Allen was a senior when this happened, so it was a fantastic end to a career that ended up turning Allen into one of the greatest RBs in NFL history. His junior season in 1980 was also admirable, with 1563 rushing yards for 14 touchdowns. It’s also worth mentioning that the 2342 yards Allen had as a senior was an NCAA first. No player before had ever piled up so many carries.
3. Tony Dorsett, RB, Pitt (1976)
At the conclusion of the 1976 season, the senior Dorsett had set the all time NCAA rushing yards record, with over 6000 career rushing yards. Roughly a 3rd of that came in his Heisman season, where his 21 touchdowns helped further boost his contention for the Trophy that year. Dorsett also became a 2nd overall NFL Draft choice in 1977 and finished 4th in Heisman voting the year before he won the whole thing.
Dorsett’s career rushing totals have since fallen to the likes of the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor and Ron Dayne at Wisconsin in 2010 and 1999 as well as Texas’ Ricky Williams in 1998 and of course, San Diego State’s Donnell Pumphrey in 2016, but like Marcus Allen, no one before Dorsett had ever set such a mark.
2. Joe Burrow, QB, LSU (2019)
Another QB that won the Heisman en route to a national championship, taking out Burrow’s College Football Playoff stats still would’ve been enough for him to win the thing. And like Dorsett, Burrow ended up being a 1st round NFL Draft choice, going #1 to the Bengals, where he’s made the case as one of the NFL’s more eccentric QBs, thanks to his new throwback hairstyle. While down in Baton Rouge, Burrow racked up almost 5700 passing yards and SIXTY touchdowns as a senior.
Burrow also added 5 rushing touchdowns and besides all that, threw only 6 interceptions in his career! And you may be wondering why he’s at number 2 for the 5 greatest Heisman seasons. Well- it’s because the greatest season of all also translated to one of the greatest NFL careers at all…
1. Barry Sanders, RB, Oklahoma State (1988)
Most people know Sanders as quite possibly the greatest RB in NFL history. But his career at Oklahoma State puts him level with some of the greatest ATHLETES of all time. Like Wayne Gretzky in 1981/82 with 92 goals in a single season or even his 215-point effort in 1985/86. Or Babe Ruth’s 60-home run season in 1927. Sanders’ first two years in Stillwater weren’t super impressive, but his junior season was nothing short of remarkable. Over 2600 rushing yards. THIRY-SEVEN touchdowns.
And since the NCAA didn’t factor in bowl game stats for Heisman winners in those days, punching in Sanders’ numbers today gives him an even more insane total of 44 rushing touchdowns. That 37 is still the single-season rushing scores record for the entire NCAA. The 44 Sanders would have with today’s game would put him ahead of Wisconsin’s Montee Ball in 2011 (33) and FAU’s Devin Singletary in 2017 (32).
2025 may host another outstanding Heisman winner like Hunter, whose 2024 winning season ranks on the lower end among all 90 winners in college football history, but is still alongside two-time Heisman winner Archie Griffin, the legendary Ohio State RB. Griffin is still the only player in history to win it twice, and he did it in back-to-back fashion exactly 50 years ago.
Related: Where does Travis Hunter fall on the latest NFL Draft boards?
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