Georgia has two Heisman Trophy winners, forty years apart, and has not had one in the 43 years since Herschel Walker. That gap now includes two national championships and the most sustained run of success in program history, which is the part that surprises people.
| Year | Player | Position | The season |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Frank Sinkwich | Halfback | 2,187 total yards, national championship, first SEC winner |
| 1982 | Herschel Walker | Running back | 1,752 yards, third straight top three finish |
Frank Sinkwich, 1942
Sinkwich was the first Heisman winner from the SEC and the first from the South, and he did it while playing much of the season on two sprained ankles. He set the SEC total offence record with 2,187 yards, running and passing, and led Georgia to an 11 and 1 record, a Rose Bowl win over UCLA and the program’s first claimed national championship.
He had played the previous season with a broken jaw wired shut, which is the detail that follows him. He went first overall in the 1943 NFL draft and was the league’s MVP with Detroit in 1944.
Herschel Walker, 1982
Walker finished third in the Heisman vote as a freshman, second as a sophomore and won as a junior, the only player to place in the top three in each of his first three seasons. He ran for 1,752 yards in 1982 despite a broken thumb, and 5,259 yards across three years, a total that remains the most by any player over three seasons.
Georgia went 33 and 3 with Walker on the roster, won the 1980 national championship in his freshman year, and lost the 1982 title to Penn State in the Sugar Bowl. He left for the USFL after his junior season and never played a fourth year.
The Forty Three Years Since
No Georgia player has won the Heisman since Walker, and the gap covers the entire Kirby Smart era, including two national championships. That is unusual: Alabama produced four winners in twelve years of comparable dominance.
The closest calls have come at quarterback. David Greene and Matthew Stafford were never serious finalists, but Stetson Bennett finished fourth in 2022 as the quarterback of an unbeaten champion, and Carson Beck received consideration in 2023. Running backs Todd Gurley in 2014 and Nick Chubb were derailed by injury in seasons that had started as Heisman campaigns.
Why Only Two
Smart’s teams have won with defence and depth, which is exactly how Georgia has always been built and exactly what the Heisman does not reward. The 2021 champion did not have a single player finish in the top ten of the vote. The 2022 team, which went 15 and 0, had one, and he finished fourth.
Georgia has produced 42 consensus All-Americans, most of them on the defensive side, and a record number of first round draft picks under Smart. The awards have gone to the lines and the secondary, not to the player carrying the ball. Our All-Americans page covers that.
Walker Against the Field
Walker’s three year total of 5,259 rushing yards was accumulated in 33 games. Ricky Williams needed four seasons to pass Tony Dorsett’s career record; Walker was on pace to break it by a wider margin had he stayed. The debate over whether he was the best college running back ever usually comes down to him, Barry Sanders and Bo Jackson. Our Heisman winners by year page has every recipient since 1995.
The Bottom Line
Georgia has two Heisman winners: Frank Sinkwich in 1942, the first from the SEC, and Herschel Walker in 1982, who finished in the top three in all three of his seasons. Nobody has won since, a 43 year gap that includes two national titles, because the program has always won with its defence and its depth rather than a featured star.