10 biggest snubs in Heisman Trophy history
By John Buhler
3. 2003: Larry Fitzgerald
If Troy Smith getting the 2006 Heisman Trophy over Darren McFadden has you upset, well, you’re going to really hate what happened in 2003. The amount of pandering that went into getting the frail signal caller of the Oklahoma Sooners Jason White the 2003 Heisman is a travesty.
The guy never played in the NFL and Oklahoma would lose the National Championship to Nick Saban’s LSU Tigers. While the Heisman voters loved the story of White overcoming multiple injuries, the guy that was clearly the best player in the country was Pittsburgh Panthers redshirt sophomore Larry Fitzgerald.
Keep in mind that Pittsburgh had not been in the national eye as a football program since Dan Marino was slinging the pigskin in the early 1980s. Pitt was a national power under Jackie Sherril, won a share of the 1981 National Championship with Clemson and produced Pro Football Hall of Famers like Marino and Tony Dorsett.
As a redshirt sophomore, Fitzgerald would make some of the most ridiculous catches for Pittsburgh we’ve ever seen. It was painfully obvious that he was going to be a star in the NFL and Fitzgerald would stand as the best collegiate wide receiver since Randy Moss at Marshall.
Flash forward 13 years later and Fitzgerald has become the greatest player in Arizona Cardinals history. He is a top-10 wide receiver all-time and has been in the Valley of the Sun since going No. 3 overall in the 2004 NFL Draft.
The Heisman voters turned their smug heads at unrivaled football talent in Fitzgerald because he was a redshirt sophomore at Pitt and gave it to a feel-good story candidate in White, who was already past his football prime at the time of the 2003 ceremony. Like Ohio State during that same time, Oklahoma got way too much love in that era. That being said, Sam Bradford was outstanding as a sophomore in 2008 for the Sooners.