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Notre Dame Football: 5 players who were robbed of the Heisman Trophy

By Daniel Morrison

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 07: Heisman finalists linebacker Manti Te'o of the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish and quarterback Johnny Manziel for the Texas A&M University Aggies pose with Heisman Memorial Trophy Award at an informal press gathering at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on December 7, 2012 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: Photographer approval needed for all Commercial License requests. (Photo by Kelly Kline/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 07: Heisman finalists linebacker Manti Te'o of the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish and quarterback Johnny Manziel for the Texas A&M University Aggies pose with Heisman Memorial Trophy Award at an informal press gathering at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on December 7, 2012 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: Photographer approval needed for all Commercial License requests. (Photo by Kelly Kline/Getty Images) /
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Notre Dame Football. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

The Notre Dame Football program has produced seven Heisman Trophy winners, but they have also been robbed of five more.

Notre Dame football, along with Oklahoma and Ohio State, is tied for first in college football history with seven Heisman Trophy winners. For Notre Dame, those winners are Angelo Bertelli, John Lujack, Leon Hart, Johnny Lattner, Paul Hornung, John Huarte, and Tim Brown.

That means the last time a Notre Dame football player brought home the Heisman Trophy was 1987.

There have certainly been Notre Dame football players worthy of the honor since 1987, but the voting just hasn’t gone their way. So, let’s take a look at five Notre Dame football players who should have won the Heisman Trophy, from both before and after 1987.

In the past, the Irish have been on the fortunate side of votes that should have gone to another player too. Though, fortunate may not be the best word, as he won it due to a large number of voters not being able to stomach the idea of voting for a black player, because Jim Brown deserved Hornung’s Heisman, especially since Hornung was on a losing team, which led to some debate at the time whether or not Tennessee’s Johnny Majors deserved the award.

Even with that, both Hornung and Majors, along with the general public, agree Brown should have won. However, this isn’t about Irish players who shouldn’t have won the award, it’s about Irish players who did deserve to win the Heisman Trophy, but didn’t, whether it was due to their position or competition.

So, here are five Notre Dame football players who should have won the Heisman Trophy, but didn’t:

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