(04-13-2019 05:49 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote: The winner of the 1980 Heisman Trophy was George Rogers out of South Carolina. Rogers was a fine running back and this is in no way disrespectful of him. However, Keith Jackson was so upset with that decision that he resigned his Heisman Trophy ballot. I’ve seen him talk about that. He said it was the biggest injustice he’d ever seen in the voting. I would argue that in the years since we’ve seen a few equally ridiculous decisions, but that gives you an idea of how good Green was as a defensive end at Pitt.
I think that Keith may have been a little off his rocker there. The vote between Rogers and Green wasn't close, Rogers got 216 first-place votes to 179 for Green, and he also got more second-place votes than Green. The total points, 1128 to 861, wasn't close either. So it wasn't like Green was overwhelmingly regarded as the best but lost out because a couple haters left him off the ballot or something. Also, in the 1981 draft, Rogers was picked 1st while Green went 7th, so it's not like NFL evaluators regarded Green as obviously better.
Green just had to contend with the same thing all defensive players did then and now, the bias in favor of offensive players who generate eye-catching stats that defenders can't match.
The real controversy i remember from 1980 was that many believed that Herschel Walker, who finished 3rd in the voting, would have won had his last game been counted. At the time, the Heisman organization tallied its ballots around November 25, and while Rogers had played his regular season by then, Walker had a game vs Georgia Tech after that, in which he gained over 200 yards and scored a bunch of TDs. Many at the time thought that with that performance included, he might have won the Heisman.
In any event, some other nuggets about those three players and teams in 1980:
1) Georgia of course went undefeated and won the National Championship.
2) Even though South Carolina was independent that year, they played Georgia. Both Rogers and Walker played well, Walker gained 219 yards, Rogers 168 in Georgia's 13-10 win.
3) Pittsburgh was in the spotlight all year. They were expected to contend for the national title, starting the year at #3 in the polls. They lost one game, to FSU, but never dropped below #11 in the polls, and were again #3 going in to the bowl games.
4) While South Carolina wasn't contending for the national title like Pitt and Georgia, Rogers did help them win. The two years that he was an All-American, 1979 and 1980, the Gamecocks won 8 regular season games, which they had done exactly zero times before in their history dating back to 1903. South Carolina even lingered at the bottom end of the polls most of the year.
Ironically, Pitt would finish #2 in the final polls after winning the Gator Bowl versus ... South Carolina. Rogers ran for over 100 yards, but Pitt won easily, 37-9.
Finally, Rogers and Green had similar NFL careers. Rogers, like Green, started with a bang. In 1981, he gained 1674 yards. That was enough to lead the NFL, and he was Rookie Of the Year and first-team All-Pro as a result. It also set the NFL rookie rushing record, and even though that record was broken by Eric Dickerson just two years later, it is still the second-most yards ever gained by a rookie.
But as with Green, his career was hobbled. Between the 1981 and 1982 seasons, Rogers was caught up in a cocaine investigation among Saints players, and he admitted to using cocaine and had to enter a summer rehab treatment program. He would gain 1,000 yards three more times, in 1983, 1985, and 1986, but he never had the same mojo after the cocaine affair, and he also suffered from chronic injuries. His last year was 1987.