Heisman Trophy: Which college football program has won the most?

Here is the list of what college football programs have won the Heisman Trophy the most.

It may be an increasingly quarterback-centric award, but the Heisman Trophy remains the highest individual honor any college football player could ever hope to garner during his playing career.

While it is incredibly parochial and extremely regionally biased, the Heisman winner usually ends up going to the star quarterback on one of the best teams in the country in a particular season. It is not always the case, but it’s more likely than not. Regardless, the Heisman winner joins an incredibly exclusive football fraternity, as well as gets to make sweet commercials with Nissan.

Here is a list of the schools with the most Heisman Trophy winners in college football history.

Which college football program has the most Heisman Trophy winners?

As of the 2021 college football season, three schools are tied for the most Heisman Trophy winners. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Oklahoma Sooners are all tied with seven winners apiece.

• Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7): Angelo Bartelli (QB, 1943), Johnny Lujack (QB, 1947), Leon Hart (END, 1949), Johnny Lattner (HB, 1953), Paul Hornung (QB, 1956), John Huarte (QB, 1964), Tim Brown (WR, 1987)
• Ohio State Buckeyes (7): Les Horvath (HB/QB, 1944), Vic Janowicz (HB/P, 1950), Howard Cassady (HB, 1955), Archie Griffin (HB, 1974-75), Eddie George (RB, 1995), Troy Smith (QB, 2006)
• Oklahoma Sooners (7): Billy Vessels (HB, 1952), Steve Owens (FB, 1969), Billy Sims (RB, 1978), Jason White (QB, 2003), Sam Bradford (QB, 2008), Baker Mayfield (QB, 2017), Kyler Murray (QB, 2018)

Notre Dame and Oklahoma have had seven different players win the Heisman, while Ohio State has had six, but with running back Archie Griffin being the only repeat winner in Heisman history, as he won it back-to-back for the Buckeyes in 1974 and 1975. Tim Brown (1987), Troy Smith (2006) and Kyler Murray (2018) are the most recent Heisman winners for these three schools.

Rounding out the top five for most Heisman winners in school history are the USC Trojans with six and the Alabama Crimson Tide rollin in with four.

• USC Trojans (6)*: Mike Garrett (HB, 1965), O.J. Simpson (HB, 1968), Charles White (RB, 1979), Marcus Allen (RB, 1981), Carson Palmer (QB, 2002), Matt Leinart (QB, 2004)
  • Reggie Bush (RB, 2005) was vacated.
• Alabama Crimson Tide (4): Mark Ingram Jr. (RB, 2009), Derrick Henry (RB, 2015), DeVonta Smith (WR, 2020), Bryce Young (QB, 2021)

Had Reggie Bush’s (2005) Heisman not been vacated, the Trojans would be tied for the most in college football history with seven. As far as Alabama is concerned, they have the two most recent Heisman winners in Devonta Smith (2020) and Bryce Young (2021). In fact, all of its Heisman winners played for Nick Saban. Only Young failed to win a national title during his Heisman run.

Six other schools have the distinct honor of having three football players win the Heisman. To date, those six programs are the Army Black Knights, the Auburn Tigers, the Florida Gators, the Florida State Seminoles, the Michigan Wolverines and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

• Army Black Knights (3): Doc Blanchard (FB, 1945), Glenn Davis (HB, 1946), Pete Dawkins (HB, 1958)
• Auburn Tigers (3): Pat Sullivan (QB, 1971), Bo Jackson (RB, 1985), Cam Newton (QB, 2010)
• Florida Gators (3): Steve Spurrier (QB, 1966), Danny Wuerffel (QB, 1996), Tim Tebow (QB, 2007)
• Florida State Seminoles (3): Charlie Ward (QB, 1993), Chris Weinke (QB, 2000), Jameis Winston (QB, 2013)
• Michigan Wolverines (3): Tom Harmon (HB, 1940), Desmond Howard (WR/PR, 1991), Charles Woodson (CB, 1997)
• Nebraska Cornhuskers (3): Johnny Rodgers (WR/RB, 1972), Mike Rozier (RB, 1983), Eric Crouch (QB/WR, 2001)

Although Army is never winning another one, the five Power Five institutions have all won at least one in relatively recent history. Eric Crouch (2001), Tim Tebow (2007), Cam Newton (2010) and Jameis Winston (2013) have all won one this century, while Charles Woodson (1997), the only defensive-first player to ever win the Heisman, did so in the latter part of the 20th century.

Eight have won it twice: Georgia, LSU, Miami (FL), Navy, Texas, Texas A&M, Wisconsin and Yale.

Twenty-one schools have one Heisman winner in their proud football histories: Baylor, BYU, Boston College, Colorado, Chicago, Houston, Iowa, Louisville, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Oregon State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Princeton, South Carolina, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, TCU and UCLA.

Shockingly, these eight programs have never had a Heisman winner in their football histories: Arkansas, Cal, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The only thing we know for certain is there will be a Heisman Trophy handed out in December.

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