10 biggest snubs in Heisman Trophy history
By John Buhler
8. 1995: Tommie Frazier
Like in 1997 and 2011, did the Heisman Trophy voters screw up the 1995 voting by going with Ohio State Buckeyes running back Eddie George? Not really, as George was spectacular that season for Ohio State. He would go on to have a short, but great NFL career with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans. George was one yard short of winning a Super Bowl with the 1999 Titans, too.
It’s really only nitpicking, but it’s hard to imagine that Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Tommie Frazier didn’t win a Heisman during his fantastic run in Lincoln. Nebraska peaked as a national power under head coach Tom Osborne with Frazier as his star mobile quarterback in 1995.
The Cornhuskers would win three straight National Championships before Osborne would call it a coaching career and take over the reigns as Nebraska’s athletic director. Many would argue that the 1995 Cornhuskers were the greatest college football team ever assembled.
It was a dynasty in the mid-1990s, probably only comparable to what Nick Saban has had at the University of Alabama since 2009. Frazier was the signature offensive player in the triple-option attack of Osborne at Nebraska.
In the minds of many, Frazier is a top-five college football player from the 1990s. Obviously, his skill set didn’t translate to the NFL; pass-first quarterbacks won on fall Sundays back when Frazier was running by people in Lincoln in the college game.
George was deserving of the 1995 Heisman Trophy, but to think one of the all-time greats like Frazier never won one is astonishing. Frazier represented a program and an era of college football were are shamelessly forgetting at a rapid pace. Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch represent Big Red quite well as Heisman winners, but Frazier was the best offensive player to play for Osborne at Nebraska.