Alabama Awards Tracker: As the Bryant Museum Once Boasted So Many Trophies, So Little Space
The haul continues, and is even more impressive when considering Alabama's individual honors at the national level before Nick Saban arrived in 2007.
No one had won a Heisman Trophy before. Now with quarterback Bryce Young there have been four winners.
The Maxwell Award? The total has gone from zero to five.
The Walter Camp Award? A modest three.
Of the 25 major college football awards that ESPN.com listed on its awards page, just five had been won by a Crimson Tide player.
No Chuck Bendarik or Bronko Nagurski trophy for defensive player of the year. No Fred Biletnikoff Award for the game's most outstanding receiver. No Doak Walker winners for having the best running back.
A decade later the reverse was true. There were only five awards an Alabama player had never won: Davey O’Brien (quarterback), John Mackey (tight end), Lou Groza (kicker), Ray Guy (punter) and Paul Hornung (most versatile), which had only been around since 2010.
Two of those, the O'Brien and the Hornung, were secured in 2020.
Alabama had won so many trophies during that the display cases on the second floor of the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility had seemingly been in a constant state of expansion. Just when the workers finished and had everything just the way they wanted someone would win another one.
Consequently, prior to the start of the 2018 season, Alabama opened up a new recruiting area in the Mal Moore Athletic Center, with one long wall dedicated national honors. Much like the way a lot of college football programs have a display with NFL helmets, and each player from the program who once played for that team listed, Alabama had trophies with all of its winners under Saban.
There were so many that one could take all of the trophies and play a game of checkers on a very, very large board (especially since the Joe Moore trophy weighed approximately 350 pounds. It took an offensive line to move).
Throw in some coaching honors and the Disney Spirit Award for overcoming adversity following the 2011 tornado and you’d have enough pieces to play chess.
That’s unparalleled in college football history.
Alabama was winning so many trophies that The Paul W. Bryant Museum had a little fun with a promotional video called “So many trophies, so little space,” that joked some were being used as paper weights and door stops.
And that was in 2012.
Although Mark Ingram Jr. was Alabama's first Heisman Trophy winner, lineman Barrett Jones became the first to win so much hardware that he couldn’t hold all at once. Running back Derrick Henry was the second, and defensive lineman Jonathan Allen third third.
In addition to the Bednarik and Nagurski honors, Allen also snared the Ted Hendricks Award as the game’s best defensive end, and the Rotary Lombardi Award as best lineman.
“He has a lot of great attributes as a player,” Saban said about Allen when he got Heisman buzz despite being a defensive player. “I think he would be a great candidate for it."
But then came 2020, the year that set the standard for all of college football in terms of individual accolades during the undefeated season that resulted in another national championships. If the tight end counted as part of the offensive line, every offensive starter minus one won a major national award.
College football may never see anything like that again.
2020 Awards
Frank Broyles Award (top assistant coach): Steve Sarkisian
Joe Moore Award (outstanding offensive line unit): Alabama
Heisman Trophy: DeVonta Smith
Paul Hornung Award (most versatile): DeVonta Smith
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (best four-year quarterback): Mac Jones
Rimington Award (best center): Landon Dickerson
Biletnikoff Award (best receiver): DeVonta Smith
Maxwell Award (most outstanding player): DeVonta Smith
Davey O'Brien Award (best quarterback): Mac Jones
Outland Trophy (best interior lineman): Alex Leatherwood
Doak Walker Award (running back): Najee Harris
Walter Camp Award (player of the year): DeVonta Smith
Associated Press Player of the Year: DeVonta Smith
Bear Bryant Coach of the Year: Nick Saban
Manning Award (quarterback of the year): Mac Jones
Alabama Crimson Tide National Awards
Heisman Trophy (Collegiate Player of the Year)
Alabama Athletics
Chuck Bednarik Award (Defensive Player of the Year)
Fred Biletnikoff Award (Outstanding Receiver)
Butkus Award (Outstanding Linebacker)
Walter Camp Player of the Year Award (National Player of the Year)
Alabama Athletics
William Campbell Trophy (National Football Student-Athlete of the Year)
NFF
Disney Spirit Award (Most Inspirational Player or Team)
Ted Hendricks Award (Best Defensive End)
Paul Hornung Award (Most versatile)
Lombardi Award (Outstanding Player)
Lott Impact Trophy (Top Defensive Player)
Manning Award (Top quarterback in the nation)
Maxwell Award (Collegiate Player of the Year)
Joe Moore Award (Best Offensive Line Unit)
Joe Moore Award
Bronko Nagurski Trophy (Defensive Player of the Year)
Alabama Athletics
Outland Trophy (Outstanding Interior Lineman)
Rimington Trophy (Outstanding Center)
Jim Thorpe Award (Best Defensive Back)
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm (Outstanding Senior Quarterback)
Doak Walker Award (Outstanding Running Back)
Wuerffel Trophy (Community Service)
National Coach of the Year
Frank Broyles Award (Assistant Coach of the Year)
Alabama and the Heisman Trophy
Top Finishers for Crimson Tide (Place, Name, Position, Year)
- Mark Ingram II, running back, 2009; Derrick Henry, running back, 2015; DeVonta Smith, wide receiver, 2020; Bryce Young, quarterback, 2021
- AJ McCarron, quarterback, 2013; Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback, 2018
- David Palmer, wide receiver, 1993; Trent Richardson, running back, 2011; Amari Cooper, wide receiver, 2014; Mac Jones, quarterback, 2020
- Lee Roy Jordan, linebacker, 1962; Johnny Musso, halfback, 1971
- Joe Kilgrow, halfback, 1937; Harry Gilmer, halfback, 1945; Harry Gilmer, halfback, 1947; Pat Trammell, quarterback, 1961; Terry Davis, quarterback, 1972; Steadman Shealy, quarterback, 1979; Jay Barker, quarterback, 1994; Najee Harris, running back, 2020; Will Anderson Jr., linebacker, 2021
- No one
- Cornelius Bennett, linebacker, 1986; Shaun Alexander, running back, 1999; Jonathan Allen, defensive lineman, 1999
- Quinnen Williams, defensive lineman, 2018
- Walter Lewis, quarterback, 1983
- Steve Sloan, quarterback, 1965; Bobby Humphrey, running back, 1987; Derrick Thomas, linebacker, 1988; Eric Curry, defensive end, 1992; Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback, 2019
This database will be regularly updated when necessary.
