In their Cinco De Mayo celebration Tuesday, Fox Sports was asking who the best player to ever wear number five in college football was. Some great nominees were on there including Reggie Bush, Christian McCaffrey and LaDanian Tomlinson in recent years.
Notre Dame even had a nomination in the form of Manti Te’o who wore jersey number five for the Fighting Irish between 2009-2012, finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting his senior year.
Who is the best player in college football history to wear No. 5? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/1XeQM5hTTC
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) May 5, 2020
Looking at their list, sure, everyone is a rather modern player with both Edgerrin James and Donovan McNabb ending their college careers in 1998 being the oldest players listed. They don’t however say a word about there being a year or era requirement to decide.
So, isn’t there a certain Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame that is missing from this list?
I get that Paul Hornung is considered by many to be among the most-overrated players in the history of the NFL. When you hear his name plenty immediately argue against his bust being in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He’s also the only player to ever win a Heisman Trophy despite playing on a losing team, doing so in 1956. The quarterback ran for all of 420 yards that season while throwing for 917 more with three touchdown passes, good for the second most total yards in the nation that season (1337).
Hornung beat out Johnny Majors of Tennessee and Tom MacDonald of Oklahoma, who actually received more first place votes that season. However, isn’t it a little strange to have a number five from a school mentioned as the best to wear a number when the same school produced an actual Heisman winner?
Just a thought.
For the record – the correct answer is Reggie Bush, even if USC isn’t currently allowed to claim him.