Oklahoma State football: 2011 Cowboys produced quite a feat
For the Wednesday Oklahoman, I wrote about OSU playing Eli Manning in the Cotton Bowl eight years ago. You can read that column here.
Reminiscing about Manning reminded me that he wasn’t the first Manning quarterback to play against the Cowboys. On Sept. 30, 1995, in Bob Simmons’ fifth game as OSU’s head coach, Tennessee trounced the Cowboys 31-0. Peyton Manning, a Volunteer sophomore, completed 17 of 25 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns.
So the Cowboys in their history are 0-for-Mannings. But they were 2-0 this season against highest-status quarterbacks. The Cowboys beat the eventual Heisman Trophy winner (Baylor’s Robert Griffin) and beat the presumptive overall No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft (Stanford’s Andrew Luck).
A reader asked me if that has ever happened. Good question, I thought, so I looked it up. And the answer is yes. Actually more often than you might think.
I went back 50 years. In the ’50s, the Heisman was a big deal, but the NFL Draft was not. The overall No. 1 pick was not necessarily the best prospect. So I figured 1960 was a good place to start. Here’s what I found.
* 2008 Florida. Those Gators beat Georgia’s Matthew Stafford (No. 1 in the 2009 draft) and OU’s Sam B Bradford (Heisman) in the national title game.
* 2006 Florida. Those Gators also won the national title, beating LSU’s JaMarcus Russell (No. 1 pick) in the regular season, then Ohio State’s Troy Smith (Heisman) in the national title game.
* 2003 LSU. Those Tigers also won the national title (I’m detecting a trend). They beat Ole Miss’ Eli Manning (No. 1) in the regular season, then OU’s Jason White (Heisman) in the Sugar Bowl.
* 2000 Miami. Those Hurricanes won two huge regular-season showdowns, beating Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick (No. 1) and Florida State’s Chris Weinke (Heisman).
* 1999 Michigan. Those Wolverines beat Penn State’s Courtney Brown (No. 1) and Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne (Heisman), both in the regular season. Of course, it’s not quite as sexy to beat a No. 1 overall pick who isn’t a quarterback. Every previously-mentioned player was a QB. But Brown was a defensive end and Dayne a tailback.
* 1984 West Virginia. Those Mountaineers were nothing special; they finished 8-4 and beat TCU in the Bluebonnet Bowl. But West Virginia beat Boston College’s Doug Flutie (Heisman) and Virginia Tech’s Bruce Smith (No. 1). Smith, a defensive end, became one of the all-time great NFL players.
* 1963 Texas. Those Longhorns won the national title, beating Texas Tech receiver Dave Parks (No. 1) and Navy quarterback Roger Staubach (Heisman).
So there are seven cases of sweeping both the No. 1 overall pick and the Heisman Trophy. That’s good company for the 2011 Cowboys. Now, this doesn’t count when the same player achieved both honors (it’s happened 11 times since 1959 – Auburn QB Cam Newton in 2010-11, USC QB Carson Palmer in 2002-03, Miami QB Vinny Testaverde in 1986-87, Auburn tailback Bo Jackson in 1985-86, South Carolina tailback George Rogers in 1980-81, Texas tailback Earl Campbell in 1977-78, Stanford quarterback Jim Plunkett in 1970-71, USC tailback O.J. Simpson in 1968-69, Oregon State QB Terry Baker in 1962-63, Syracuse tailback Ernie Davis in 1961-62 and LSU halfback Billy Cannon in 1959-60. It also doesn’t count 1983 Nebraska, which had the Heisman winner (tailback Mike Rozier) and the No. 1 draft pick (receiver Irving Fryar).
A bunch of teams have played both the eventual Heisman winner and the eventual No. 1 overall pick. They just haven’t beaten both.
And we’ve had several matchups of the eventual Heisman winner against the eventual No. 1 pick.
* 2007: Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long (No. 1) beat Florida quarterback Tim Tebow (Heisman).
* 1991: Washington defensive tackle Steve Emtman (No. 1) beat Michigan flanker Desmond Howard (Heisman) in the Rose Bowl.
* 1990: Brigham Young quarterback Ty Detmer (Heisman) beat Miami defensive tackle Russell Maryland (No. 1).
* 1967: USC offensive tackle Ron Yary (No. 1) beat UCLA quarterback Gary Beban (Heisman).
A few other interesting things.
In 2004, no one beat either the Heisman winner (USC quarterback Matt Leinart) or the No. 1 pick (Utah’s Alex Smith). Both were undefeated. And the same thing happened in 1973, with Penn State tailback John Cappelletti (Heisman) and Tennessee State defensive end Ed Too Tall Jones (No. 1).
In 2001, Colorado somehow beat Nebraska (and Heisman winner Eric Crouch) but lost to Fresno State (and eventual No. 1 David Carr).
In 1992, lowly Temple somehow ended up playing both Heisman winner (Miami QB Gino Torretta) and eventual No. 1 (Washington State QB Drew Bledsoe) even though both opponents were from a different part of the country. But in 1984, Temple played both from the same region (BC’s Flutie and Virginia Tech’s Smith).
The same conference has produced both the Heisman winner and the overall No. 1 twice: Penn State’s Brown and Wisconsin’s Dayne in 1999, and USC’s Yary and UCLA’s Beban in 1967.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
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Very Interesting. I would include that ’83 Husker team in your last comment. The Miami Huuricanes beating a team with the Heisman winner (Rozier) and a different player becoming the NFL #1 pick (Fryar) is something special…especially in a National Title Game.
How about a team beating the top 4 QBs in a draft? OSU may do that this year if Luck, RG3, Foles, and Tannehill go 1-4. If Landry had come out, it might have been 1-5.