Tennessee Football: 10 Vols Who Were Robbed of Postseason Awards in School History

Sep 12, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view during the first quarter at Neyland Stadium during the game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Tennessee. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

2. Hank Lauricella

Year: 1951

Award: Heisman Trophy (Best Player)

Winner: Dick Kazmaier, Princeton Tigers

Let’s go back a little bit in history. The Ivy League Schools had already sunk into irrelevance in college football. But for some reason, that did not matter to the voters.

Tennessee had gone 10-0 during the regular season under Gen. Robert Neyland as Head Coach, and Hank Lauricella was the MVP of that national title team.

But because Dick Kauzmaier was a quarterback who led his team in passing and rushing, picking up 966 yards through the air and 13 touchdowns to only five interceptions while rushing for another 861 yards and nine touchdowns, Lauricellas numbers were no match with only only 881 yards rushing and 352 yards passing while scoring only 13 total touchdowns.

But it should not have mattered.

At that point, Kazmaier was on a completely irrelevant football team playing incredibly weak competition. The 1951 Princeton Tigers went undefeated against nothing but Ivy League teams along with NYU and Navy.

Meanwhile, Tennessee played a schedule that included two ranked teams and five teams with winning records against real competition. Lauricella was clearly the better player and should have won the Heisman, regardless of what the stats said.

Next: #1: Heisman-Johnny Majors in 1956