Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

Sophomore running back Mark Ingram has done something for the University of Alabama that legendary quarterbacks Joe "Willie" Namath and Kenny Stabler and every other football player at Alabama could not do--bring home a Heisman Trophy for the Crimson Tide faithful.

Ingram nudged out running back Toby Gerhart of Stanford in the closest vote of the award's 75-year history to become the first Alabama player to ever win the annual trophy as the best player in college football.

Only a 28-point difference separated Ingram's 1,304 votes from Gerhart's 1,276. Ingram received 227 first-place votes to Gerhart's 222. Finishing 3rd in the balloting was Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, 4th was Nebraska defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, and 5th was Florida QB Tim Tebow. Tebow won the Heisman as a sophomore two years ago.

Colt McCoy was in the running last year when Oklahoma's Sam Bradford won the Heisman Award. While McCoy did not win the Heisman this year (many thought he would because of his overall performance the last 3 years), he won several other awards.

McCoy won the Maxwell Award honoring the nation's best all-around player, the Walter Camp Football Foundation's Player of the Year Award for the second consecutive season, and the Davey O'Brien Award for being the nation's best quarterback.

Nebraska's Ndamukong Suh won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation's Best Defensive Player, the Outland Trophy as the nation's Best Interior Lineman, the Lombardi Award as the nation's Top Lineman, and the Bronco Nagurski Trophy as the nation's Best Defensive Player.

Stanford's Toby Gerhart won the Doak Walker Award as the nation's Best Running Back. Tennessee's Eric Berry accepted the Jim Thorpe Award honoring the Best Defensive Back. Notre Dame's Golden Tate won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's Best Receiver.

UCLA's Kai Forbath took home the Lou Groza Award as the nation's Best Kicker, and Georgia's Drew Butler won the Ray Guy Award honoring the nation's Best Punter.

Cincinnati's Brian Kelly won the Coach of the Year Award on the same day he told his team he had accepted an offer to coach the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Kelly, an Irish Catholic, called the Notre Dame gig his dream job.

The 10 prior winners of the Heisman Trophy included 10 quarterbacks and 2 running backs. The two running backs included Reggie Bush of Southern California in 2005 and Ron Dayne of Wisconsin in 1999.

The 8 quarterbacks included Chris Weinke of Florida State in 2000, Eric Crouch of Nebraska in 2001, Carson Palmer of Southern California in 2002, Jason White of Oklahoma in 2003, Matt Leinart of Southern California in 2004, Troy Smith of Ohio State in 2006, Tim Tebow of Florida in 2007 and Sam Bradford of Oklahoma in 2008.