In the closest Heisman race ever, Toby Gerhart came up just 28 points short.
Alabama’s Mark Ingram, a running back, won college football’s most prestigious award Saturday night—he grabbed 1,304 points, while Gerhart placed second with 1,276. The difference was a mere 1.2 percent.
Texas’s Colt McCoy (1,276 points), Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh (815) and Florida’s Tim Tebow (390) rounded out the finalists, the largest group since 2004. The Heisman chase was the closest by 17 points—Bo Jackson beat Chuck Long by 45 in 1985.
Ingram ran for 1,542 yards and 15 touchdowns while leading Alabama to a No. 1 ranking and a BCS Championship Game appearance.
“I’m so excited to bring Alabama their first Heisman winner,” said Ingram, who was emotional throughout his acceptance speech. The son of a former NFL wide receiver, Ingram is the third straight sophomore to win the trophy.
If Gerhart, who ran for 1,736 yards and 26 scores, was disappointed, it showed only minimally.
“It’s an honor to be here,” he said, unphased as Ingram posed with the trophy not 50 feet away. “It’s an honor to represent Stanford.”
The announcement, made at the Nokia Theater in New York, capped off one of the wildest Heisman races in recent memory, one that changed dramatically after championship weekend. Before Texas and Nebraska faced off for the Big 12 title and Florida and Alabama met for the SEC crown, McCoy led Gerhart, Tebow, Ingram and Suh, in that order. But after those two match ups, the dynamics of the race changed: with Gerhart off, Ingram and Suh turned in notable performances while McCoy and Tebow floundered. About 90 percent of the 904 voters turned in their ballots after those games, and the change in perception was reflected in the final results.
Ultimately, Ingram won four of the six regions—Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and South—while Suh took the Southwest and Gerhart won the Far West. Ingram won five more first place votes and eleven more second place votes than Gerhart, while McCoy and Gerhart tied for the most third place votes, beating Ingram by nine.
Gerhart, despite his razor-thin loss, was nothing but gracious in defeat.
“Mark’s a great guy,” he said. “I appreciate the way he plays. I’m a physical guy, he’s a physical guy, we can relate to each other.”
“He carried his team on his back,” he continued. “I’m extremely proud of him.”