Saturday, one of either Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey or Deshaun Watson will join the most illustrious and exclusive club of college football as Heisman Trophy winners. For the runners-up, supports may well argue their inclusion on another roster comprised of some of the sport’s all-time greats: that of notable Heisman snubs.
Each of this year’s trio of finalists has a strong case to hoist college football’s most prestigious honor. This year’s Heisman snubs aren’t indicative of the winner, but rather an indictment of whom the Trust failed to invite to New York City, like Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds, Florida State running back Dalvin Cook or Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Regardless who leaves with the hardware this weekend, however, this year’s presentation likely won’t be remembered for its controversy — certainly not in the vein of the greatest-ever Heisman snubs.
Statistics alone don’t always detail the full picture, so for that reason I won’t venture past the 1980s. Not that I need to in order to spotlight some of the more noteworthy Heisman snubs, as the award’s been steeped in controversy repeatedly in the last three decades.
[…] The general consensus between Heisman and AP voters for the last two decades reiterates the controversy behind this year’s award. The race between runner-up Christian McCaffrey and winner Derrick Henry, with Clemson’s Deshaun Watson running a distant third, wasn’t particularly close — certainly not like 2009, the last time the AP Player of the Year and Heisman differed (and not-so-coincidentally, one of my biggest Heisman snubs of the last three decades). […]