UGA Football: The great Heisman heist of 1992, Gino Torretta over Garrison Hearst

Gino Torretta beat out Marshall Faulk and UGA football legend Garrison Hearst for the 1992 Heisman Trophy, but did he truly deserve the award?

UGA football only has two Heisman Trophy winners in this history of its program; Frank Sinkwich in 1942 and Herschel Walker in 1982. It has been 39 years since a Bulldog last hoisted the Heisman Trophy, but one Bulldog was very close in 1992. Garrison Hearst ended up coming in third to San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk and Miami’s Gino Torretta.

Torretta, the quarterback of the Miami Hurricanes, won the Heisman. He also claimed the Davey O’Brien Award for the most outstanding quarterback; the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award for the most outstanding senior quarterback; and both player of the year awards (Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Award). Torretta nearly swept the postseason awards, but the only quarterback award he didn’t win was the Sammy Baugh Trophy which was won by Michigan’s Elvis Grbac.

Torretta completed 228 passes on 402 attempts for 3,060 yards, 19 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. He ended up with a 132.8 quarterback rating. In comparison, Grbac completed 129 of 199 passes for 1,640 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He had a 150.2 quarterback rating. However, he didn’t even attempt 200 passes.

More from Dawn of the Dawg

• Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
• Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
• Nick Chubb is America’s running back, and he will return
• Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
• Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina

Neither of them should have been the best quarterback of 1992. In fact, that honor should have gone to little known Houston quarterback Jimmy Klingler. Klingler completed 303 of 504 passing attempts for 3,818 yards, 32 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. His 137.6 quarterback rating shows he was more efficient than Torretta.

With Klingler actually having the best quarterback performance of 1992 there is no way that Torretta deserved to win the Heisman for the best overall player in the country. He clearly won it because of what Miami accomplished as a team and not for what he did as an individual player. This is the case a lot of the time when a quarterback wins an award.

The players that finished second and third in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1992 were both running backs. The runner-up Faulk, was a running back from San Diego State. He didn’t actually win any postseason awards yet he received more votes for the Heisman than Garrison Hearst who won Doak Walker Award winner (most outstanding running back).

Faulk did have an outstanding season in 1992 though, rushing 300 times for 1,530 yards and 21 touchdowns. He added 47 catches for 644 yards and three touchdowns. It would be tough to have a better season than that as a running back.

However, Hearst did just that as he rushed 228 times for 1,547 yards and 19 touchdowns. He added 22 catches for 324 yards and two touchdowns. Faulk did have 303 more yards and three more touchdowns, but he also had 97 more touches than Hearst.

There is a reason Hearst won the Doak Walker Award, it is obvious that he was the most outstanding running back in 1992. The Heisman voters clearly robbed Georgia’s former running back of the award.