Why Alabama didn't have a Heisman winner until last night

by Mac T on Dec 13, 2009 6:18 PM CST

[N.B.: I wrote this for a non-fan audience, but I figured I'd repost it here. Seriously, they couldn't have started in 1934? -- MT]

1. Timing. Alabama has had two great eras. Everyone knows about the Bryant era, but the first was under Wallace Wade (1923-1930) and Frank Thomas (1931-1946). The Heisman wasn’t given out until 1935, halfway through the period. Wade and Thomas had several great players from 1923-1934. If the first Heisman had been given out one year earlier, there is every chance that the first winner would have been Don Hutson, who pretty clearly was the best player in college football in 1934.

2. Defense. Most of Alabama’s best players have been defensive players. Only one defensive player has ever won the Heisman, and he was a defensive back who played some offense and returned kicks. Players like Lee Roy Jordan and Derrick Thomas could easily have been the “most outstanding college football player”.

3. Team mentality. Coach Bryant in particular played a lot of players, and very rarely rode one quarterback even before he installed the wishbone. If you watch footage of some of his sixties teams, he’s playing three or four quarterbacks when his starter is someone like Joe Namath or Ken Stabler. It’s weird, actually. But it worked.

4. The wishbone. Coach Bryant’s best teams, the dominant seventies era squads, ran the wishbone. The way that system works, no running back is going to get more than at most forty percent of the team’s carries. If a wishbone player is going to win the Heisman, it’s probably going to be a quarterback, but as noted, he was using three or four quarterbacks and none put up huge running totals.

5. Namath. Joe would have won the Heisman his senior year, in my opinion, except that he had knee problems which hurt his mobility and brain problems that caused Bryant to keep him in a rotation system rather than riding a once-in-a-lifetime talent. Bama won the national championship that year, but Namath only attempted 100 passes.

6. Dumb luck. Just one of those things.

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Comments

I agree with everything

This is pretty much 100% true. I can’t think of anything else to add.

"A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation." - Mark Twain

by Stu from Tuscaloosa on Dec 13, 2009 6:43 PM CST reply actions

RE: Wishbone

Billy Sims seems to have done okay in the ’bone, just to name someone right offhand.

"Hollywood made a movie of my life. The film had me proposing to my wife on the football field. I would never misuse a football field that way." -Crazy Legs Hirsch

by Stuck in the Plains on Dec 13, 2009 8:29 PM CST reply actions

Well, you CAN run the wishbone that way

But it’s not the most efficient way. If you’re running it right, neither starting halfback is going to be dominant. And Coach Bryant used lots of halfbacks.

Musso could have won the Heisman, but that was right at the beginning of the wishbone era when we didn’t have the depth.

by Mac T on Dec 13, 2009 8:37 PM CST up reply actions

7. We're not Notre Dame

Several of our players would have won the Heisman if they’d been wearing a gold helmet.

by zeke2029 on Dec 13, 2009 11:40 PM CST reply actions 1 recs

With our dominant eras coming mostly before the scholarship limits introduced in 1977, wouldn’t those teams have insane depth, leading to more player rotation? Looking at the list of winners, seems mostly dominated by powerhouse schools that were probably recruiting the same as Alabama, so that might not be a factor. Someone more familiar with the football landscape back then might know.

Interesting list, thanks for posting it

by Alabama ManDance on Dec 14, 2009 9:23 AM CST reply actions

Was it Don Hutson or Bear Bryant who played in the Rose Bowl with a broken leg?

Your temper brings dishonor to my happy mooshu palace.

by mulletover on Dec 14, 2009 9:41 AM CST reply actions

Bear played in a Tennessee game with a broken leg

you forgot to add 7. Stinking Big 10 Media bias in the 70s, and funny you mention Thomas, he had 27 sacks, 35TFL, and 44 QB hurries in 1988 but only finished 10th in Heisman voting, sucks when Bary Sanders also plays the same season

"Yeah, it's Tennessee, that's the way it is sometimes." - Corey Zickefoose, Pulitzer Prize winner and robbery victim

by Thomas Walker Esq on Dec 14, 2009 10:52 AM CST reply actions