What college has the most Heisman Trophy winners?

As the 2021 Heisman Trophy ceremony is upon us, it’s worth wondering which college football program has the most Heisman winners.

Since Nick Saban took over as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, it feels like an Alabama player at least makes the general Heisman Trophy discussion on a fairly regular basis. The Crimson Tide have yet another player up for the Heisman this year, quarterback Bryce Young, and there’s a really good chance that he’ll win it this year.

But Alabama doesn’t have the most Heisman winners in history. Even if Young is able to take the most prestigious award in college football home with him, Alabama would only have four Heisman winners in its history.

So, which team has the most Heisman winners in history? Well, there’s actually a tie for first place in this category.

Which school has the most Heisman Trophy winners?

At the top of the list sit the Oklahoma Sooners, Ohio State Buckeyes, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and each program has seven Heisman winners to celebrate.

Oklahoma’s seven Heisman winners are Billy Vessels in 1952, Steve Owens in 1969, Billy Sims in 1978, Jason White in 2003, Sam Bradford in 2008, Baker Mayfield in 2017, and Kyler Murray in 2018.

Notre Dame’s seven winners are Angelo Bertelli in 1943, John Lujack in 1947, Leon Hart in 1949, John Lattner in 1953, Paul Hornung in 1956, John Huarte in 1964, and Tim Brown in 1987.

Ohio State’s winners are Les Horvath in 1944, Vic Janowicz in 1950, Howard Cassady in 1955, Archie Griffin in 1974 and 1975, Eddie George in 1995, and Troy Smith in 2006. Some might try to argue that Ohio State only has six winners as Griffin took the prize home in back-to-back seasons, but they’ve got a total of seven trophies in program history.

Many would also argue that the USC Trojans also have seven Heisman winners, but there’s a bit of controversy there because of the NCAA.

USC’s winners are Mike Garrett in 1965, O. J. Simpson in 1968, Charles White in 1979, Marcus Allen in 1981, Carson Palmer in 2002, Matt Leinart in 2004, and Reggie Bush in 2005. However, for very controversial reasons, the NCAA stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that Bush won the Heisman as it was eventually forfeited due to an NCAA scandal.

But he did win it.

Should Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud end up as the recipient of this season’s Heisman then the Buckeyes would top the list with eight winners in program history.

It’ll be fascinating to see how everything unfolds and who takes home this year’s Heisman.

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