QB’s Heisman formula? Just win baby

Reaching title game, not amazing stats, key to capturing trophy

Though he did catch a respectable number of passes — 45 — last season for the Thundering Herd, Marshall wideout Darius Passmore is hardly a viable Heisman Trophy threat in 2008. Instead, Passmore, or at least his surname, serves as a 21st century guidepost. A declaration. A Heismantra, if you will.

Pass more.

Seven of the past eight Heisman Trophy winners have been quarterbacks, and that trend will likely continue this season. Once running backs seemingly owned the bronze bust. From 1972-1983 the award was strictly the domain of running backs, and if Gerard Phalen of Boston College had not been so sure-handed in 1984 — it was he who hauled in Doug Flutie's prayer as time expired at Miami — that streak may have extended longer.

Whereas the 1970s and early '80s were the RB era, a time when iconic coaches such as John Robinson (USC) and Woody Hayes (Ohio State) produced multiple Heismans from the tailback slot — it was Hayes who grumbled, "Three things can happen when you attempt a pass, and two of them are bad" — the 21st century is so far a passer's fancy.

The irony is that the most prolific passers have not been taking home the Heisman this decade — the ones with the highest-ranked team have.

In 1999 Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne won the Heisman. All the Badger back had to do to earn his bust was finish his career in Madison as Division I-A's all-time leading rusher. Dayne gained 6,397 yards in four seasons.

To win the Heisman as a running back, you have to post massive yardage. To do so as a quarterback, you simply have to win.

During that 12-year running backs run (1972-1983), for example, no pretenders won the award. From 1976-1983 all but one of the seven Heisman Trophy winners was also that season's leading rusher in I-A: Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, Billy Sims, Charles White, George Rogers, Marcus Allen and Mike Rozier. Memorable figures, those. The exception was Georgia's Herschel Walker who in 1982 had a lower yards-per-game figure than Oklahoma State's Ernest Anderson. Walker, few will argue, was the most devastating rusher college football has ever seen. The only dispute concerning Herschel was why he did not win the award twice.

It was an era in which the Heisman was bestowed on the most prolific rusher in America. And if that back happened to also play for a national championship-caliber team (all but Rogers played in a New Year's Day bowl), well, that was a function of what the most successful programs did offensively at the time. It was a FedEx Ground era in college football.

This decade? Seven of the eight Heismans have gone to quarterbacks. And whereas the yardstick on rushers has always been yardage — six of the top dozen all-time rushing leaders have won the award — the standard for
Consider these five names: Chris Weinke, Eric Crouch, Jason White, Matt Leinart and Troy Smith. All five quarterbacks won the Heisman this decade, though none of them are anywhere near the top in all-time or single-season NCAA passing records lists. None of them led the nation in passing the year they won the award. What those five had in common was an appearance in the national championship game the year they visited Manhattan in December.
A sixth quarterback, Carson Palmer of USC, never made it to the national championship game, but at least in NFL scouts' (and Fantasy Leaguers') eyes, he's by far the best Heisman winner of the bunch. The seventh, Florida's Tim Tebow, played in the national championship game the year before he won the trophy.

The oddity is that passers, with apologies to the Houston slingers of the late '80s-early '90s, have never been more prolific than in this decade. Hawaii's Timmy Chang (2000-04) is the sport's all-time passing yardage leader (17,072) while his successor, Colt Brennan, holds the NCAA record for most touchdown passes in a season (58). Neither won the Heisman, and only Brennan was even invited to the ceremony.