You’ve seen the pose. A stiff arm, a bronze figure, and a name etched into history. Every year, we crown a new king of college football, and the world acts like they’ve just identified the next NFL Hall of Famer. But honestly? The Heisman Trophy is a bit of a weirdo award. It’s a snapshot of one autumn, not a promise of a career.
Just look at the most recent name on the list: Fernando Mendoza. In December 2025, Mendoza walked away with the trophy after a season at Indiana that basically defied logic. He led the Hoosiers to their first-ever undefeated regular season. He wasn't even the favorite when the season started. That's the Heisman in a nutshell. It’s about the "Heisman Moment," that one Saturday where everything clicks, more than it is about a three-year body of work.
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Since 1935, when Jay Berwanger first took home the statue—back when it was just called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy—the list of winners has grown to 91 names. Berwanger didn’t even play in the NFL. He took a job at a rubber company instead. You won’t see that happen today.
The Quarterback Takeover
If you look at every Heisman Trophy winner from the last two decades, it feels like a quarterback convention. It wasn't always like this. For decades, the trophy was basically the "Best Running Back in America" award.
From 1973 to 1983, every single winner was a running back. Every. Single. One. Big names like Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, and Herschel Walker dominated the conversation. Then the game changed. Coaches started throwing the ball, and voters started falling in love with the stat sheet.
Since 2000, we’ve seen a massive shift. We went through a stretch where quarterbacks like Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Bryce Young made it look like nobody else was even playing the game. But every so often, a unicorn shows up. DeVonta Smith (2020) proved a wide receiver could still win it, and Travis Hunter (2024) reminded everyone that playing both sides of the ball is still the coolest thing you can do on a football field.
The Curse That Isn't Actually Real
People love talking about the "Heisman Curse." The idea is that winning the trophy is basically a kiss of death for your pro career. You’ve heard the names: Johnny Manziel, Tim Tebow, Matt Leinart. Guys who were absolute gods on campus but couldn't stick in the league.
But is it actually a curse? Not really. It’s more about how the NFL evaluates talent versus how sportswriters vote.
Voters love the story. They love the kid who pulls off a miracle in the fourth quarter. NFL scouts, on the other hand, don't care about your "moxie." They care about your arm talent, your release time, and whether you can read a zone-blitz.
Why Some Winners Fail (and Others Fly)
Take Jason White (2003). He was incredible at Oklahoma, but his knees were basically held together by tape and prayers by the time he won the trophy. He went undrafted. That’s not a curse; that’s just biology.
Then you have the guys who actually lived up to the hype:
- Barry Sanders (1988): Still arguably the best to ever do it.
- Charles Woodson (1997): The only primary defensive player to win, and he became a legend in Green Bay and Oakland.
- Lamar Jackson (2016): People said he couldn't play QB in the NFL. He won two MVPs.
- Joe Burrow (2019): Had arguably the greatest single season in history and went #1 overall.
Success in the NFL is about the situation you land in. Archie Manning (who never won a Heisman, but his son Eric Crouch's contemporary fans remember the era) used to say that the best players get drafted by the worst teams. It’s a tough cycle to break.
The Ivy League Days and Wartime Football
It’s easy to forget that the Heisman didn't always live in the SEC or the Big Ten. Early on, the Ivy League was the powerhouse. Larry Kelley and Clint Frank won back-to-back for Yale in 1936 and 1937. Imagine that happening now. You can't.
World War II changed everything. In 1944, Les Horvath won the trophy for Ohio State, but he was actually a dental student. He hadn't even played the year before because he was in dental school. Because of the war, the NCAA allowed him to come back and play.
Frank Sinkwich (1942) didn't even get a real trophy at first. Metal was being rationed for the war effort, so he got a certificate. He also played with a broken jaw for half a season. Different breed back then.
How the Voting Actually Works (It’s Kind of a Mess)
The voting process is both simple and incredibly controversial. There are roughly 928 voters. Most are media members, but every living former Heisman winner gets a vote too.
The country is split into six regions. This is supposed to stop "regional bias," but let’s be real—everyone has a bias. If you're a voter in the South, you're watching the SEC every Saturday. If you're in the West, you're watching the Big 12 or whatever is left of the Pac-12.
Each voter picks a first, second, and third-place finisher.
- 1st place: 3 points
- 2nd place: 2 points
- 3rd place: 1 point
The points are tallied, and the winner is announced in a fancy room in New York. Sometimes it's a landslide, like Troy Smith in 2006. Sometimes it’s a razor-thin margin, like Fernando Mendoza edging out Diego Pavia in 2025.
The One Who Won Twice
Only one person has ever won the Heisman Trophy twice: Archie Griffin. He did it in 1974 and 1975 for Ohio State.
People have come close. Billy Sims almost did it. Tim Tebow was in the mix for years. But it’s almost impossible now because the "voter fatigue" is real. If you win it as a sophomore, the bar for your junior year becomes impossibly high. You don't just have to be good; you have to be better than the version of yourself that already won the trophy.
What to Do With This Information
If you’re a fan trying to predict the next winner or just looking back at the history of every Heisman Trophy winner, keep these things in mind:
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- Don't overvalue the NFL potential. The Heisman is a college award. Judge it by what happened on Saturdays, not what happened during the NFL Combine.
- Watch the late-season games. The "Heisman race" usually isn't won in September. It's won in the last three weeks of November when the pressure is highest.
- Look for the outliers. While quarterbacks usually win, keep an eye on two-way players or dominant receivers. They need "viral" plays to overcome the QB bias.
- Check the team record. Since 1969, almost every winner has played for a team with three or fewer losses. If a guy is on a 7-5 team, he’s probably not winning, no matter how good his stats are.
The Heisman is a weird, flawed, beautiful piece of American sports history. It’s a trophy that says, "For these three months, you were the most exciting person in the country." And honestly, that’s enough.