Heisman Trophy winners that have played in the CFL

CFL Talk
1

I see someone has posted an article on Heisman Trophy winners that have played in the CFL, now that the latest, Troy Smith is with the Als.
Not mentioned is former Edmonton QB Terry Baker who won the Heisman while playing at Oregon.

2

TSN showed the list during the Als game, there were about 8 or 9 Heisman winners who've played in the CFL.

3

Off the top of my head I can come up with six.

Billy Vessels
Johnnie Rodgers
Terry Baker
Doug Flutie
Ricky Williams
Troy Smith

There were many CFL greats that were runners up including Joe Kapp and Kenny Ploen who were runners up in the same year I believe.

4

Here's the list.

[url=http://www.cfl.ca/article/heisman-hype-a-look-at-all-cfl-heisman-winners-debuts]http://www.cfl.ca/article/heisman-hype- ... ers-debuts[/url]
5

Heisman trophy winners & runner-ups who have played in the CFL: (most of which were complete busts)

2006 - Troy Smith - Ohio St. - Montreal
2001 - Eric Crouch - Nebraska - Toronto Argonauts
1998 - Ricky Williams - Texas - Toronto Argonauts
1989 – Andre Ware – University of Houston – Ottawa, B.C., Toronto
1984 – Doug Flutie – Boston College – Toronto, Calgary, B.C.
1972 – Johnny Rodgers – Nebraska – Montreal Alouettes
1962 – Terry Baker – Oregon State – Edmonton Eskimos
1952 – Billy Vessels – Oklahoma – Edmonton Eskimos

Heisman runner-ups in the CFL:

2002 – Brad Banks – Iowa – Ottawa, Winnipeg
1998 – Michael Bishop – Kansas State – Toronto Argonauts
1996 – Troy Davis – Iowa State – Hamilton, Edmonton
1995 – Tommie Frazier – Nebraska – Montreal Alouettes
1990 – Raghib Ismail – Notre Dame – Toronto Argonauts
1987 – Don McPherson - Syracuse - Hamilton Tiger Cats
1986 – Paul Palmer – Temple – Toronto Argonauts
1974 – Anthony Davis – USC – Toronto Argonauts
1970 – Joe Theismann – Notre Dame – Toronto Argonauts

6

Thanks for the correction, Kapp and Ploen were finalists but not runners up.

Interesting to note that in the first year of the Heisman, William Shakespear was a finalist. I didn’t even know he played football. :lol:

7

More DUDS than STUDS on both these lists for sure,not sure why but a good portion of the time winning that trophy or being runner-up is usually the death knell of your career.It’s almost like it has a curse or voo-doo attached to it…can you say Tim TeBow??? :roll: Hopefully that’s one winner, who we won’t see in the CFL :lol:

8

Here is an excerp from his consolation speech:

“But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.” :cowboy: :lol:

9

Ricky Williams coming off another great NFL season was unable to wrestle the Rushing title away from BC Lions Joe Smith too.

Shows the differences in the games and that NFL players wouldn't be the best even when one of their best comes up here.

10

Ricky Williams was used to having a lead blocker in the NFL. While CFL RB’s are expected to make the “first tackler miss”, Williams was not adept at that. He was also ineffective as a receiver out of the backfield for the same reason. Ricky had the lowest rushing average for a starting RB in many years at 4.6 yds. Starting CFL RB’s normally average at least 5.0 yds, with the top RB’s at 5.5 yds or higher.

Winning a Heisman is certainly no indicator of success in the CFL. But Johnny Rodgers was exceptional and could just glide along and run away from everybody. :thup:

11

THE "ORDINARY SUPERSTAR" JOHNNY RODGERS !!!


http://cfl-scrapbook.no-ip.org/images/Rodgers.Johnny-front.JPG

12
:rockin: Woop thanks for the pics BoBo!
13

My first Grey Cup was in Calgary, the Eskimos vs the Allouette. Johnny Rodgers definitely earned the title, ordinary.

14
:cowboy:

John Hufnagel came 6th in the |Heisman voting while Tom Clemens came 4th in another year's vote. :rockin:

15

Ricky Williams might be the most powerful runner the CFL has seen since Willard Reaves. He was stuck in a terrible scheme behind a mash unit of an oline – and then he broke his arm and missed 7 or 8 games. I watched him drag half the Lions defense (a cup winning defense that year) for nearly the entire 2nd half of his game at BC for 90+ yards.

16

Speaking of Rickie Williams. I think the Argo owners at the time fired OC Kent Austin because he couldn't or wouldn't design an offense tailored to Rickie's strengths. Which would be a FB type lead blocker to get him pass the line of scrimmage once in a while. But a better OLine would have helped.

17

It's funny but I thought that Williams when he played that one year here,never seemed like his heart was in it,seemed to be just going through the motions.Kind of like he had no choice,it didn't matter to him because he knew he would be back in the NFL the next season,kind of like being in a job you weren't happy about,but you did it anyway because you know it's only a temporary gig,and a stop gap measure until something better pops up.IMO Williams was between mediocre and average in his one season in the CFL. He certainly didn't play like some big time Super-Star from the BigBoy League.He knew it was a one off and played the same way.

18

I didn’t get that impression at all. Everyone in the Argos team and the media surrounding the Argos gave glowing reports about his attitude, and as far as on the field, I never saw him take a down off and that’s all that really matters.

He’s the most powerful runner I’ve seen in this league at least since Pringle, maybe ever.

19

Interesting memory about His attitude- I remember when the Argos came to Calgary the media here was making a lot of drug jokes, calling him “reefer Williams” and such. and several Argo players approached the local media expressing what a great team player and upstanding person he was.

20

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/10/24/ricky-williams-smoking-weed.jpeg