The world will find out Tuesday night if Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith will become the first Heisman Trophy winner in 23 years whose primary position is not quarterback or running back.
Smith is one of four finalists for college football’s top individual award, along with three quarterbacks — Crimson Tide teammate Mac Jones, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Florida’s Kyle Trask. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Heisman will be presented in a virtual ceremony that airs at 6 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.
According to odds released Monday by the online gambling site BetOnline.Ag, Smith is the overwhelming betting favorite to win this year’s Heisman. Smith is a 1-to-15 pick by oddsmakers, following by Jones (9-to-2), Lawrence (14-to-1) and Trask (50-to-1).
Michigan’s Charles Woodson is the most-recent non-quarterback/running back to win the Heisman Trophy, doing so in 1997. (Advance Local file)
The last non-quarterback/running back who won the Heisman was Michigan’s Charles Woodson, who beat out Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning in a surprising vote in 1997. Woodson’s primary position was cornerback, but he also returned punts and saw significant action at wide receiver.
The three non-QB/RB Heisman winners prior to Woodson were also multi-purpose players who excelled as kick-returners: Michigan’s Desmond Howard in 1991, Notre Dame’s Tim Brown in 1987 and Nebraska’s Johnny Rodgers in 1972. Howard and Brown were pure receiver/returners, while Rodgers also played some halfback for the Cornhuskers in addition to wide receiver and return man.
Wide receivers and tight ends were known as “ends” in football parlance prior to the late 1960s, and two players at that position have won the Heisman. Yale’s Larry Kelley took home the trophy in 1936, followed by Notre Dame’s Leon Hart in 1949 (both also stood out on defense in those “iron man” days).
In addition to the six winners, 16 other players classified as wide receivers, tight ends or simply as ends have finished in the top four in the Heisman balloting, as we know Smith has this year. (We would be wise to dispense with the “finalist” designation, as that’s simply a construction for media purposes. There was no additional round of voting after the “finalists” were announced, as there are for other college football awards, such as the Outland Trophy or Biletnikoff Award. But “top vote-getters” doesn’t have the same ring, one would suppose).
Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper (9) finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 2014. (Vasha Hunt/AL.com)
Of those 16 other top four Heisman finishers who were receivers of some sort, two of them played at Alabama: David Palmer in 1993 and Amari Cooper in 2014. Palmer finished third behind quarterbacks Charlie Ward of Florida State and Heath Shuler of Tennessee, while Cooper was third behind Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota and Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon (neither vote was close, though Palmer and Cooper both received more first-place votes than that year’s runner-up).
Since Woodson in 1997, the closest a wide receiver has come to winning the Heisman was Pittsburgh’s Larry Fitzgerald in 2003. Fitzgerald was runner-up to Oklahoma quarterback Jason White, just 128 points and 66 first-place votes behind.
It’s Fitzgerald who is perhaps a fitting comparison to Smith, at least statistically. Fitzgerald — who has gone on to what is almost certainly a Hall-of-Fame career with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals — led the country in receiving yards (1,672) and touchdowns (22) in 2003, while finishing with 92 receptions.
Smith is first nationally in receptions (105), receiving yards (1,641) and receiving touchdowns (20), while his total touchdowns (22) rank behind only teammate Najee Harris (27) and Iowa State’s Breece Hall (23). Smith has a touchdown rushing (a 14-yarder vs. Ole Miss) and one on a punt return (an 84-yarder vs. Arkansas), but has done the vast majority of his damage as a pass-catcher.
The Heisman Trophy has become a quarterback’s award during the 21st century, with 17 of the last 20 winners coming at that position. However, recent history tells us if anyone might be an exception to that “rule,” it’s an Alabama player.
Alabama running back Mark Ingram won the Heisman Trophy in 2009, becoming the first Crimson Tide player to take home college football’s most-prestigious individual award. (Getty Images)AP Photo/Kelly Kline
Just three non-quarterbacks — all of them running backs — have won the Heisman since 1999. Those three are USC’s Reggie Bush (who was later forced to forfeit his Heisman amid NCAA sanctions) in 2005, Alabama’s Mark Ingram in 2009 and Alabama’s Derrick Henry in 2015.
Ingram and Henry both won the Heisman in close votes, with Ingram’s margin-of-victory being the slimmest in the award’s history. Ingram finished just 28 points and five first-place votes ahead of fellow running back Toby Gerhart of Stanford, and just 159 points and 24 first-place votes ahead of the third-place finisher, Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.
Henry also won a fairly tight three-way race, besting Stanford running back/return specialist Christian McCaffrey by 88 first-place votes and 293 points. Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson was third, 230 first-place votes and 667 points behind Henry. (Heisman vote totals via sports-reference.com/cfb).
DeVonta Smith was not among the Top 20 Heisman Trophy favorites for 2020, according to preseason odds released in August. If he walks away with the award on Tuesday night, he’ll have exceeded expectations in more ways than one.
Creg Stephenson is a sports reporter for AL.com and a Heisman Trophy voter. Follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.
