Who Should have Won the 2005 Heisman?
Reggie Bush has been one of the most talked about athlete on ESPN recently, because of the controversy of him possibly being stripped of the Heisman trophy. Yesterday, Bush decided that he would return his Heisman trophy, which means that a vote will take place on whether they should vacate the award or give it to runner-up Vince Young. 
Lately, there have been a lot of pundits talking about how Vince Young was the most deserving player to win the award anyway. The main thing they point to is how Vince Young outplayed Reggie Bush in the National Championship game as he led his Texas Longhorns to a victory over Bush’s USC Trojans.
I’m going to tell you in this article, why Reggie Bush was the most deserving player to win the Heisman trophy that season – NOT Vince Young.
Why am I doing this? I’m tired of hearing all the experts talk about how Vince Young should have won the award that season anyway. Also, I harbor ill will and like to make Marcos mad.
I think everyone can at least agree that the two most deserving candidates for the 2005 Heisman Trophy were Reggie Bush and Vince Young. I don’t think that can be disputed.
Pose all you want Vince, but you were the 2nd best player in 2005
Vince Young and Reggie Bush put together amazing seasons for their respective programs and played huge roles in leading their teams to undefeated seasons and a berth in the Rose Bowl to play for the National Championship.
The Heisman Trophy is annually given out to the “most dominate player in college football” that season. Reggie Bush and Vince Young could both stake the claim that they were the most dominate college football player during the 2005 season.
Vince Young had a spectacular season throwing and running the football as he led Texas to an undefeated season. His stats:
Passing: 65.2 CMP% 3036 Yards 26 TD 10 INT
Rushing: 155 ATT 1050 Yards 6.8 YPC 12 TD
Those are incredible numbers put up by Vince Young, and most seasons, putting up numbers like that with your team ranked as the #2 team in the nation and heading into the National Championship game, it would be enough to win the stiff-arm trophy.
Notice I said most seasons. The reasons Vince Young didn’t win the Heisman Trophy that season was because Southern California running back Reggie Bush put up even better numbers and wowed the nation every time he got his hands on the ball.
His stats:
Rushing: 200 ATT 1740 Yards 8.7 YPC 16 TD
Receiving: 37 REC 478 Yards 12.9 YPC 2 TD
8.7 YPC is just an absolutely absurd number when you really think about it. It’s the highest yards per carry in the history of college football for a single season. The highest ever! [pullquote]Each time Bush had the ball in his hands we all sat back and were ready to see something amazing, because we all knew what could happen when he touched the ball.[/pullquote]
Bush also led the nation in with an average of 222.3 all-purpose yards per game.
Reggie Bush was the most electrifying and dominate college football player during the 2005 season and may have been the most electrifying player we have ever seen play college football.
Who doesn’t remember Bush in his #5 USC jersey making college defenders look like high school kids with his sick cuts and amazing break away speed. Each time Bush had the ball in his hands we all sat back and were ready to see something amazing, because we all knew what could happen when he touched the ball.
You could have the Trojans backed up in their own territory one minute and the next Bush was headed to the end zone with a 70+ yard touchdown.
The best evidence to Reggie Bush’s dominance was his performance in a regular season game against Fresno State. He set the Pac 10 record for most total yards from scrimmage in that game with 513 all-purpose yards (294 rushing, 68 receiving, 151 return).
Reggie Bush was truly a special talent and he deserved to take home the Heisman Trophy that season. It may have been found out now that Bush was not an eligible player during his 2005 Heisman campaign, but at the time, nobody knew that he wasn’t.
The biggest reason some people believe that Vince Young should have won the Heisman trophy was because of his performance in the Rose Bowl against USC. Here’s the problem with that. The Heisman is given out before the bowl games, so whatever you do afterwards means absolutely nothing.
The back of Bush's jersey was a familiar sight to defenders in 2005
Plus, just because Vince Young was better in ONE game that means that he was more deserving to win the Heisman trophy? I don’t understand that.
The Heisman is based on your body of work and never should one game be your reasoning behind backing somebody for the Heisman. Sure, Vince Young was amazing in that game racking up 467 yards of total offense (267 passing, 200 rushing). That is amazing. But, let’s not pretend that Reggie Bush was awful in that game.
Texas’ defense had a great game plan for Reggie Bush and they limited his effectiveness, but he still finished with 279 all-purpose yards (82 rushing, 95 receiving, 102 return).
Vince Young was better in that game, but why should that take away from Reggie Bush’s performance? If anything, it was a knock on USC’s defense not being able to stop Vince Young.
Vince Young was better than Reggie Bush for one night and one night only. That shouldn’t be an impetus for Vince Young being deserving of winning the Heisman.
It’s quite obvious actually that Reggie Bush deserved to win the award. Everyone outside of Texas thought that Bush was the best player in college football that season.
The coaches across the nation thought that Reggie Bush was the best player in 2005 as he was awarded the Walter Camp Award.
Sportswriters thought that Reggie Bush was the best player that season by awarding him the Associated Press College Football Player of the Year award.
Lastly, the Heisman voters thought that he was the best player in college football that season by voting him as the Heisman winner in a landslide. He received 784 first-place votes compared to Vince Young’s 79. That’s a difference of 705. Why is this even being discussed if it was such a landslide?
Hate him or love him, Bush was the best player in college football that season
The only people that thought at the time that Vince Young should have won the Heisman trophy were wearing burnt-orange tinted glasses. Reggie Bush won the Heisman in a landslide and was voted the best player in college football that season by people much smarter and better versed in college football than me or any of you.
Reggie Bush made the mature decision to return his Heisman Trophy. I was actually for him keeping the award, because it was the NCAA’s fault for not ruling him ineligible five years ago. But, Bush saved the Heisman trust from having to make the difficult no-win situation of letting him keep the award or stripping him of the Heisman.
Reggie Bush wasn’t an eligible player during the 2005 season as we have found out, but during the time he was shredding defenses in college football, none of us knew about it. He proved during the season time and time again that he was the best player in college football that season.
He deserved to win the Heisman Trophy and Vince Young deserved to be in 2nd place that season, no matter how many people want to try and dispute that fact now.
Reggie Bush may have given back the Heisman Trophy, but everyone who watched the 2005 college football season will remember who was the most dominate player in college football that season and who held that 25-pound bronze trophy in New York that December.
10 Comments
Ha ha, this is mean. But I like that you were up front about that fact.
HA! Good article John. I can see where you are coming from.
But the way I see it (im sure you will disagree) is everyone thought they were neck and neck entering the last game of the season. Vince had a tough game against A&M and Bush lit up a CRAP Fresno State team. An amazing performance yeah, but against a quality opponent? NO. I can go on to a little league field and rush for 300 yards, doesn't make it all that impressive? I know there is a big difference , but you see what Im getting at.
People were calling Bush's team the GREATEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM EVER! No one gave Texas a snowballs chance in hell to win that game. They won it cause "The MOST DOMINATE PLAYER" in college football played for Texas. I know the NC does not count, but you cannot say Bush was a more dominant player after seeing them play head to head. YOU CANNOT.
VY for the most part sat out a lot of the latter parts of games because Texas was murdering their opponents.
If he had had a decent game against A&M and if Colorado put up a game in the Big 12 Championship ( A hame won 70-3) to where he did not sit out the whole 2nd half, we are not having this discussion.
Point being. Those short memory voters only remembered Bush lighting up Fresno State on PRIME TIME TV.
If you honestly think he was more dominant player, then so be it. But you would be wrong.
I think saying I'm wrong in thinking Bush was more dominate is a little ridiculous. My opinion differs from yours and obviously, you are a Texas fan. I don't have a pony in the race, but I remember the 2005 season and I remember Bush as the more dominate player. That one game against Fresno State wasn't the whole reason Bush won the Heisman. He had the highest yards per carry among running backs in college football history!
I do respect your opinion though. Thanks for reading.
To put Bush's NC game numbers into perspective, he had 177 yards from scrimmage… a mark hit by Mark Ingram, last year's Heisman winner, just 4 times in 14 games.
And Grip, your notion that they were neck to neck is false. Bush had 784 first place votes, Vince Young had 79. In fact, if every vote that was given to 3rd place finished Matt Leinert was transferred to Vince Young, he would STILL lose to Bush. Outside of Texas, there was NO debate.
I said neck and neck before the last week of the season and that was the consensus. You were prolly off playing Pokemon when this season went down.
The Fresno state game is what had everyone cheesing over him. That is what put him over the top.
NICE! I agree 100%. Bush won hands down. In my "Taking Reggie Bush's Heisman" I said someting similar.
Vince had the ball in his hand EVERY play. Bush, about 280 times. Per touch, it's really not even close.
And now that he gave up the Heisman, he'll always be remembered. I can't tell you who won the 1985 or 1995 Heisman. But I'll always remember that Reggie Bush won and gave up the 2005 Heisman.
Shut up Rob.
You definitely make a pertinent point about the last week of the regular season that year, Marcos. And I agree that it was that week that sealed the deal for Bush in his Heisman race against Young. But to assert that Young was playing against tougher competition is to simply buy into the notion that Fresno State must have a lower-quality defense than Texas A&M simply because of the logo on the side of the helmet and the conference in which they play.
Unfortunately, though, the Big XII has been the BCS conference most guilty of masking its defensive deficiencies with high-scoring offensive machines. Even in that national championship game, as previous people have noted, it wasn't as though Texas took a blowout victory. If the tables are turned and USC has the ball last in that game, is there more than the requisite modicum of doubt that it would've been Bush pounding the rock over the plane for the winning score?
But back to that final game of the season. You assert that shredding a "CRAP Fresno State team" is less impressive than faltering against A&M. But look at the defensive statistics that season:
Fresno State:
TOTAL DEF - 346.9 ypg (38th)
SCORING D - 22.5 ppg (32nd)
PASSING D - 198.4 ypg (31st)
RUSHING D - 148.5 ypg (60th)
Texas A&M:
TOTAL DEF - 443.8 ypg (107th)
SCORING D - 31.2 ppg (94nd)
PASSING D - 304.6 ypg (117st)
RUSHING D - 139.2 ypg (44th)
When you get down to it, Vince Young had everything in his corner heading into the last game of the season. He had an opponent that should've been easy as hell to pick off and drive up his stats to a Heisman-conquering level. Instead, it was Bush who took on a tough Pat Hill-coached defense (the guy's been producing stout D in Fresno for over a decade) and torched 'em in front of a live nationwide audience.
When the clock rolled 2006, that's a different story. Young won the national championship fair and square… and faltered when the Heisman was in his reach.
Yes, but who did Fresno State play that year?
Weber State, Oregon, Toledo, NM State, Utah St. Idaho, Hawaii, San Jose St., Boise St, SC, Nevada Lous. Tech and Tulsa.
A schedule they went 7-6 through Oregon was the only other ranked team they faced. A&M went 7-6 that year but also played 3 top 25 ranked teams excluding Texas.
Regardless. I am in no way saying Bush was not amazing, I just think VY was more dominant. Great, Bush dominated all year but won it on the heels of that Fresno State game that was nationally televised. I think it was on TBS, right? Everyone and their mom watched that game and to Bushs credit he ran like a mad man. But still, it was Fresno.