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College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

The Heisman Trophy Quarterback Curse Continues for Programs, Coaches, and QBs

Many recent Heisman winning seasons have led to unsatisfactory results for all parties involved

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Dec 10
Dec 10

By Rock Westfall

LSU head coach Brian Kelly continues to take plenty of well-justified criticism. LSU fans regret that Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels’ season did not equate to a championship. In their defense, many recent college football coaches, quarterbacks, and programs have been cursed by the Heisman Trophy. 

Jayden Daniels – The Latest and Greatest Opportunity Wasted

It did not take Brian Kelly long to realize that he had no defense to depend on with his 2023 LSU Tigers. So he turned the team over to quarterback Jayden Daniels. As the season went to waste, Kelly focused on turning a lost championship campaign into something of a win by having Daniels build up his stats to the point of getting an invite to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City, where he was named the Heisman Trophy winner.

In his second season on the Bayou, Kelly’s program failed to prepare an effective plan to deliver an adequate defense, which LSU actually had in Kelly’s first campaign of 2022. Kelly deserves no pass, as he was hired to improve the entire program and build upon his initial success. Instead, it devolved into a one-man team with a defense so putrid that the entire defensive staff was scapegoated with firings at season’s end. 

Lincoln’s Heisman QBs Don’t Necessarily Live the Life of Riley 

In 2022, Caleb Williams became the third Lincoln Riley-led QB to hoist the Heisman Trophy. Williams began his career with Riley at Oklahoma and followed him to USC after the 2021 campaign. Last year, Williams was a favorite to become the first repeat Heisman Trophy winner since Ohio State running back Archie Griffin (1974-75).

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Instead, Williams regressed as he carried the burden of a team with no defense, weak interior line play, and lacking toughness. Also, Williams’ personality changed at USC from his time at Oklahoma. While in Los Angeles, he went full Hollywood and came off as soft, entitled, distracted, and eccentric to some.

Previously, Riley coached Oklahoma QBs Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018) to Heisman Trophies. Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff both times but was exposed for having no serious defensive ability.

In all three cases, Riley pampered Williams, Mayfield, and Murray. The Heisman Trophies did not equate to anything close to a national championship. In the case of Mayfield and Murray, such catering has debatably left them ill-prepared for the NFL. There are legitimate concerns that the same will be true of Williams, despite his first-overall pick status. Meanwhile, Riley has lost his shine and is on the hot seat entering his third season at USC.

Interestingly, the one successful pro quarterback under Lincoln Riley was Jalen Hurts, who made the final table for the 2019 Heisman Trophy in his one transfer campaign with the Sooners. Previously, Hurts spent three seasons under the demanding taskmaster Nick Saban at Alabama. Hurts took those good work habits he developed under the GOAT with him to the NFL, where he has thrived with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Tough Love Payoff for Lamar Jackson but Losses for Louisville 

In 2016, Lamar Jackson won the Heisman Trophy for head coach Bobby Petrino and the Louisville Cardinals. But Jackson was something of a one-man band. The Cardinals finished 9-4 with a final AP ranking of 21st. Louisville was unable to build on that success, and Petrino was fired two years later after failing to meet the increased expectations that followed Jackson’s Heisman.

Jackson was able to benefit from Petrino’s more demanding coaching style and has had a highly successful NFL career. Still, Louisville fans wonder what may have been had Petrino would have surrounded Jackson with a more complete supporting cast. The Cardinals have not reached comparable heights since Jackson’s Heisman campaign. Meanwhile, Petrino has not been a D1 HC since leaving Louisville. 

Jimbo Burned By a Winston 

Jameis Winston won the 2013 Heisman Trophy for the Florida State Seminoles and quarterbacked them to the national championship that year. At first glance, it would seem to be quite a success story for head coach Jimbo Fisher’s FSU program. Yet it was not.

Winston returned to FSU in 2014 but became a cancer in the locker room. Seminole players resented what they believed to be special treatment for their superstar quarterback. Additionally, Winston’s success and Fisher’s preferential treatment went to his head and made him less reliable on the field.

By 2017, the Florida State program had imploded. Fisher walked out on his team to take over at Texas A&M, where he failed to meet expectations and was fired in 2023. Meanwhile, Winston became known as an interception machine in a failed NFL career. 

Johnny Football’s Lightning in a Bottle 

In 2012, new Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin inherited an unproven redshirt quarterback named Johnny Manziel. But by the end of the 2012 campaign, “Johnny Football” was a national sensation and the Heisman Trophy winner. Manziel led Texas A&M to an 11-2 record, a final AP ranking of 5th, and an unforgettable win at Alabama.

Sumlin got a raise and extension, seemingly as the man who would finally deliver Texas A&M to national glory. But Johnny Football seemed to have been excessively admiring his headlines in 2014, and the Aggies took a step back to 9-4, finishing 18th in the AP poll.

As a one-man show and superstar, Manziel got a taste of being the life of the party, and his football skills regressed. Despite being a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns, he lasted only two NFL seasons.

Sumlin’s career took a nose dive after Manziel’s Heisman campaign. He was fired by A&M in 2017 and was a colossal failure with the University of Arizona and the Houston Gamblers (USFL) in his next HC gigs. He is now a Maryland assistant. Meanwhile, the Aggies remain the biggest wannabe program in the sport. 

More Heisman QB Carnage 

2021 Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young of Alabama did not win a national championship in his two years as Nick Saban’s starter. Despite impressive stats, Young fell short of the ultimate Bama program standard for QBs. Young’s rookie NFL season with the Carolina Panthers was a disaster. Carolina is one of the worst-managed franchises in pro sports, so time will tell if Young was cursed for ending up with them or if he is simply not up to NFL standards. Many fear it is both. 

Marcus Mariota won the 2014 Heisman Trophy for the Oregon Ducks and led them to the national championship game, a 42-20 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes. However, Mariota has been a journeyman NFL QB. His Oregon head coach, Mark Helfrich, failed to maintain momentum and was fired in 2016, never to return to the sidelines. Oregon has failed to return to the College Football Playoff since Mariota won the Heisman.

Robert Griffin III won the 2011 Heisman Trophy for the Baylor Bears but tore his ACL and LCL in his first playoff game in the NFL after being drafted 2nd overall by Washington. In addition to a rushed recovery, part of his failure was because of the desire of then-owner Dan Snyder to be Griffin’s buddy, undermining the Washington coaches. Griffin’s college coach, Art Briles, was forced into retirement as a pariah after the 2015 season because of numerous sexual assault allegations against his players. Although not fired for cause nor convicted or sued in regard to those charges, Briles has never returned to the D1 sidelines.

And then there is 2010 Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton, who led the Auburn Tigers to the 2010 national championship under a cloud of scandal regarding alleged payments (pre-NIL era) to his dad. Newton’s coach, Gene Chizik, oversaw the rapid regression of the program and was fired two years later, never to be an HC again. Newton was the 1st overall pick in 2011 and eventually was named the 2015 NFL MVP with Carolina. But that proved to be the peak of a career that soon collapsed career.

Even the Joe Cool Exception Was the Rule 

In 2019, Joe Burow led the LSU Tigers to what remains arguably the greatest season in college football history. The Bayou Bengals went 15-0 and won the national championship, and Burrow collected the Heisman. Burrow went first overall in the 2020 NFL Draft by Cincinnati and led the Bengals to a franchise renaissance and 2021 AFC championship.

However, LSU and Burrow’s head coach, Ed Orgeron, did not escape the Heisman QB curse. The program immediately went into free fall under Coach O, and he was fired in 2021. Orgeron has been out of football ever since. LSU has not fully recovered and, as was mentioned earlier, failed to capitalize on Jayden Daniels’ Heisman run in 2023.

The Heisman Trophy is a great honor for a quarterback and helps with his NFL Draft stock. But recent history shows that the Heisman for a QB is more of a curse than an asset for everyone involved. In fact, in many cases, it is a career and program killer.

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