Go beyond the scoreboard
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When it comes to Heisman Trophy winners, the subject of USC’s long and storied history with the prestigious college football award is bound to spark a few arguments.
Should Reggie Bush be part of the conversation, given that officials took back his 2005 trophy for NCAA violations? What about O.J. Simpson and his subsequent fall from grace?
Now, with quarterback Caleb Williams becoming the eighth Trojan to be handed the famous bronze statue, no other school has more and we might as well add another debate to the list.
After a stellar 2022 campaign, USC quarterback Caleb Williams wins the Heisman Trophy, beating out runner-up Max Duggan, C.J. Stroud and Stetson Bennett.
How do you rank USC’s winners?
Simple numbers — statistics and records — tell only part of the story. Award-winning seasons are made of a peculiar blend, what the Heisman Trust refers to as “great ability combined with diligence, perseverance and hard work.” It doesn’t hurt to finish the season with a few spectacular moments that catch the voters’ attention.
Given the somewhat vague criteria, here is a ranking of Trojan winners. Let the arguing begin.
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Marcus Allen 1981
Marcus Allen poses with the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 6, 1981.
(Ron Frehm / Associated Press)
The 1981 winner had to wait a while, recruited by USC as a defensive back, switching to the offensive backfield, then playing fullback while he waited two seasons for Charles White, another Heisman winner, to graduate. That pretty much checks the “perseverance.”
As a senior, Allen made up for lost time by becoming college football’s first 2,000-yard rusher, setting or tying 16 NCAA records and leading the team in receptions, all of which overshadowed the Trojans’ shaky finish that season. As for special moments, consider his eight games of 200 yards or more. After one of those performances, then-Tennessee coach Johnny Majors said: “He picks holes as well as any back I’ve seen in my coaching career.”
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O.J. Simpson 1968
(Bettmann Archive)
This one is highly problematic but, given that Simpson still appears on the winner’s list, playing college ball long before the murder trial and the imprisonment for robbery and kidnapping, we proceed.
Arriving at USC from City College of San Francisco, Simpson almost won as a junior in 1967, finishing second to UCLA’s Gary Beban. The momentum from his zigzagging, 64-yard touchdown run against the Bruins that season — it still ranks among college football’s greatest plays — carried him into next fall when he rushed for 1,880 yards and 23 touchdowns. His Heisman victory ranks among the most one-sided votes in the award’s long history.
Friday is the 28th anniversary of the infamous slow-speed chase that fascinated California and the nation.
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Reggie Bush 2005
USC’s Reggie Bush accepts the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 10, 2005.
(Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)
As long as we are debating controversial winners, let’s get this one out of the way. Though there has been recent groundswell for returning the award to Bush, the official Heisman list still shows a blank for the 2005 season.
NCAA tells former USC great Reggie Bush that it won’t return his Heisman Trophy, even with landmark changes to name, image and likeness rules.
That fall, the junior tailback produced a dazzling 2,218 yards from scrimmage with an array of big plays running, receiving and returning kicks and punts. For good measure, he added the “Bush Push,” shoving quarterback Matt Leinart across the goal line to defeat Notre Dame, a play that eventually led officials to change the rules. His highlight-reel speed and versatility made him perhaps the most memorable of all Trojan winners. As Washington State linebacker Pat Bennett said: “Even if you think you have him, he can give you a little juke and he’s gone.”
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Charles White 1979
(Associated Press)
A month after White won the Heisman, the Trojans faced Ohio State in the 1980 Rose Bowl. Their star tailback was weakened by the flu and had blood flowing from a cut nose but refused to leave the game, carrying six times for 71 yards on the game-winning touchdown drive. “He could go and go and go,” quarterback Paul McDonald said. “Take a shot, get hammered and come back for more.”
Former USC Heisman winner Charles White is suffering from Stage 2 dementia and living in an assisted care facility. He still hopes for a USC reunion.
That kind of grit exemplified what coach John Robinson called the “nasty, aggressive” runner who broke into the lineup as a freshman, led USC to three Rose Bowl victories and, in his final season, had four 200-yard games to finish comfortably ahead in the voting over returning Heisman-winner Billy Sims of Oklahoma.
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Caleb Williams 2022
USC quarterback Caleb Williams runs against Washington State on Oct. 8.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
With Williams staying in school for at least one more season, consider this a holding spot while the rest of his college career plays out.
Heisman favorite Caleb Williams has been criticized for his emotional response to USC’s losses to Utah, but such passion is part of his football DNA.
His ranking on this list owes to sheer individual talent, the number of times he spun out of a tackler’s grasp when his offensive line faltered, the games when he led the Trojans to a late victory despite a porous defense. His performances were crucial in transforming a downtrodden program into top-10 team. When people talk about a “Heisman moment,” they need to look no farther than his performances in victories against UCLA and Notre Dame.
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Mike Garrett 1965
USC’s Mike Garrett poses with the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 2, 1965.
(John Lindsay / Associated Press)
This was the player who started it all, the one who put the tailback in “Tailback U.” Fans might forget that he was headed to UCLA before then-USC coach John McKay offered him a scholarship at the last minute.
The Roosevelt High graduate’s tenacity and strength were perfectly suited to the power offense that McKay wanted to install. A workhorse runner — he would later serve as athletic director — Garrett bulled his way to 1,440 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior and became only the second West Coast player to win the Heisman Trophy.
Twenty-five years ago this month, a compact, iron-willed man from the Maravilla public housing projects in East Los Angeles won the Heisman Trophy.
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Matt Leinart 2004
(Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)
Like Allen before him, Leinart had to wait for a shot at stardom, playing behind Carson Palmer and barely winning a training camp competition for the starting spot as a redshirt sophomore in 2003. His arm wasn’t particularly strong and he wasn’t blazing fast but, as then-Oregon State coach Mike Riley would later say, “he knows where to go with the football.”
Leinart earned the Heisman by passing for 33 touchdowns with only six interceptions as he led USC to a 13-0 record and a national championship in his junior season. In a surprise move, he returned as a senior and had another stellar season, finishing third in the voting behind his winning teammate, Bush.
Mike Bohn understood how much USC fans yearned for a coach capable of returning the team to its glory days when he pursued Lincoln Riley.
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Carson Palmer 2002
USC quarterback Carson Palmer smiles at the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 14, 2002.
(Suzanne Plunkett / Los Angeles Times)
Dubbed the “Golden Boy” early in his career, Palmer won the starting job during his freshman season but had to endure a broken collarbone and plenty of losing games before breaking through.
Caleb Williams’ run to the Heisman is comparable to Carson Palmer, with him hanging around but not moving into the spotlight until late in the season.
If for nothing else, he deserves credit as the first Heisman quarterback at “Tailback U.” and the passer who helped revive USC under coach Pete Carroll. His final season included 3,942 passing yards, a “Heisman moment” against Notre Dame and a lopsided Orange Bowl victory that put the Trojans back in the national spotlight.
