By Scott Salomon
Ndamukong Suh won a lot of accolades during his collegiate and professional careers, but there is one thing that he will never have on his mantle. He will never have a Heisman Trophy, despite putting together one of the greatest seasons that a collegiate defensive lineman ever had in 2009.
Suh amassed 12.5 sacks and was credited with a whopping 20.5 tackles for loss and was selected as the AP Player of the Year. These numbers have not been attained from any interior defensive lineman since. Suh still finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Alabama’s Mark Ingram, who took home the hardware. Toby Gerhart of Stanford came in second and Colt McCoy of Texas was third.
Fox Sports analyst RJ Young had this to say about Suh’s snub and truer words have never been spoken, when it comes to a season enjoyed by a defensive lineman.
“He is a defensive player who won AP Player of the Year. I can stop there. One of the things college football media hates doing is rewarding defensive players,” Young wrote. “But in 2009, they made an egregious mistake. The Huskers have won 3 Heisman Trophies and I can make a great argument that their best player in the history of one of the greatest programs of all time didn’t win the Heisman.”
Below is a tweet from Young, who listed his All-Time Snub List.
1. Adrian Peterson
2. Ndamukong Suh
3. Vince Young
4. Chase Young https://t.co/zbCi2Sl4J3— RJ Young (@RJ_Young) January 6, 2021
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To his credit, Ingram was credited with 1,542 rushing yards in 2009 when the voting took place and he finished the season with 1,658 yards and scored 18 touchdowns. He was certainly no slouch, but Suh’s statistics as a defensive lineman are more rare in college football, than a running back running for as many yards, or scoring as many touchdowns in a single season.
Suh did with the Outland Trophy, Lombardi Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Chuck Bendarik Award in that glorious season of 2009.
The number three snub, in my opinion, has to go to Vince Young of Texas. Young had a season in 2005 that included a national championship that saw him score the game winning touchdown against the University of Southern California in the 2006 Rose Bowl Game.
Reggie Bush brought home the hardware that year, but Young was clearly the better player. While Bush would have his Heisman Trophy taken back from him, Young’s second place finish has gone down as one of the all-time greatest Heisman snubs of them all. After Bush had his Trophy stripped from him for alleged improper benefits which today are still in question, the Heisman Trust never offered the Trophy to Young, who many say would not have accepted it post-voting.
Young’s season was definitely one for the annals of college football. He completed 65 percent of his passes and threw for 26 touchdowns, while also rushing for 1,050 yards and another 12 scores. His total of 4,086 yards and 38 touchdowns, combined passing and rushing, are numbers that are not accomplished too often by a collegiate quarterback who also happened to win the National Championship, in a game where he scored the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
Bush had a great season himself and was worthy of the Award, in retrospect, but he did not have the magic season that Young had. Bush ran for 1,740 yards on 200 carries and scored 16 touchdowns on the ground. He also caught 39 balls for 481 yards and another two scores.
The USC running back also was credited with the “Bush Push” which happened against Notre Dame, where he helped shove quarterback Matt Leinart into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown in the 2005 edition of the storied rivalry.
Adrian Peterson rings in fourth on my list for the season that he enjoyed in 2004. Peterson, a freshman that season, did not win the Trophy primarily…..because he was a freshman. Back in that day, freshman were just not given the Heisman Trophy.
Peterson had a Heisman Trophy winning season as he rushed for 1,925 yards and led the Sooners to the national championship game against USC and 2004 Heisman Trophy Award Winner Matt Leinart. Leinart was tough in that 2004 season as he threw for 3,322 yards and 33 scoring strikes, while only suffering six interceptions.
As Mike McDaniel, of Sports Illustrated, wrote, Leinart was the best quarterback, but Bush was the best player.
Peterson and Leinart would both go on to be selected in the first-round of their respective drafts, but Peterson would prove to be the better professional as he enjoyed far more success in the NFL than that of Leinart. However, for the 2004 season, Leinart was awarded the Heisman Trophy while Peterson was the bridesmaid.
As for the number five slot, that could go to Peyton Manning who in 1997 lost out to Charles Woodson, the only defensive player to ever win the Award. Both players had stellar collegiate careers and were excellent professionals as well, but Manning, as the quarterback of the Tennessee Volunteers, should have won the Award as defensive players do not play every snap for their unit. The quarterback typically plays every offensive down, and as the quarterback goes, so goes the offense of the team in question.
Manning would never win a Heisman Trophy, but he did win two Super Bowls with Indianapolis and Denver.
This is Part Two of a Two-Part Series on Biggest Heisman Trophy Snubs. Last night we featured, Penix, Jr., who in my mind was the biggest Heisman Snub of the modern era.
