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I like revisiting old talking points and apparently so does Matt Hinton. He brought up an interesting point that Cam Newton will be the first Heisman winner who was actually the most outstanding player in college football since who knows when. He also mentioned that Calvin Johnson should've won the 2006 Heisman, which I strongly agree with. So I decided to come up with my list of Heisman Trophy winners dating back to the secondmost recent Georgia Tech snubbing: Joe Hamilton. Bold is who I picked, Winfield's pick is in italics, and the actual winner is in parentheses.
1999 - Joe Hamilton, Joe Hamilton (Ron Dayne)
2000 - Drew Brees, Drew Brees (Chris Weinke)
2001 - Eric Crouch, Joey Harrington (Eric Crouch)
2002 - Larry Johnson, Carson Palmer (Carson Palmer)
2003 - Larry Fitzgerald, Larry Fitzgerald (Jason White)
2004 - Adrian Peterson, Adrian Peterson (Matt Leinart)
2005 - Reggie Bush, Reggie Bush (Reggie Bush)
2006 - Calvin Johnson, Calvin Johnson (Troy Smith)
2007 - Dennis Dixon, Tim Tebow (Tim Tebow)
2008 - Colt McCoy, Jahvid Best (Sam Bradford)
2009 - C.J. Spiller, C.J. Spiller (Mark Ingram)
2010 - Cam Newton (?)
Do you agree with my picks? I tried to find guys who were men amongst boys not the typical statue-in-the-pocket-behind-monster-O-line (Jason White) or the best player on the best team (Matt Leinart). These guys would have improved every team in the country by two or more wins had they been on a different team. Unfortunately, voters for the Heisman don't vote on the best player but rather the best story.
Here are Winfield's thoughts on the Heisman:
1999 - Joe Hamilton, Joe Hamilton (Ron Dayne)
2000 - Drew Brees, Drew Brees (Chris Weinke)
2001 - Eric Crouch, Joey Harrington (Eric Crouch)
2002 - Larry Johnson, Carson Palmer (Carson Palmer)
2003 - Larry Fitzgerald, Larry Fitzgerald (Jason White)
2004 - Adrian Peterson, Adrian Peterson (Matt Leinart)
2005 - Reggie Bush, Reggie Bush (Reggie Bush)
2006 - Calvin Johnson, Calvin Johnson (Troy Smith)
2007 - Dennis Dixon, Tim Tebow (Tim Tebow)
2008 - Colt McCoy, Jahvid Best (Sam Bradford)
2009 - C.J. Spiller, C.J. Spiller (Mark Ingram)
2010 - Cam Newton (?)
Do you agree with my picks? I tried to find guys who were men amongst boys not the typical statue-in-the-pocket-behind-monster-O-line (Jason White) or the best player on the best team (Matt Leinart). These guys would have improved every team in the country by two or more wins had they been on a different team. Unfortunately, voters for the Heisman don't vote on the best player but rather the best story.
Here are Winfield's thoughts on the Heisman:
I vote for the literal MVP. The guy on the team, that without him, the team isn't much. If he's surrounded by other gamebreakers, he gets to take advantage of the tools given to him. But in my opinion a true Heisman Trophy winner is an individual who does the most with the least and I try to make my votes reflect that.Honorable Mentions: Philip Rivers (2002), Vince Young (2005), Matt Ryan (2007), Toby Gerhart (2009), Ndamukong Suh (2009), Andrew Luck (2010)