Luppino should have won the Heisman in 1954 but he got screwed by East Coast, Midwest writers who had never heard of a place called Tucson and didn’t want to vote for a sophomore. Instead they voted for Wisconsin’s Alan Ameche. But Luppino’s 2,193 all purpose yards in 1954 were two thirds of the yards Ameche gained in his entire four-year career! In fact, The Cactus Comet had twice the number of rushing yards in 1954, 1,359, than Ameche had, 641. He also scored 24 touchdowns that season, which is one less than Ameche had in his career. Luppino led the nation that year in rushing yards, total yards, scoring, and points scored. He led the nation in rushing the next year, too, the first college player to ever lead the nation in rushing in back-to-back years.

He only played in a couple of games his senior year but even if he had rushed for 2,000 yards that year he still wouldn’t have won the Heisman. That was the year Paul Hornung, the Nortre Dame Golden Boy, won it.

But, if at the end of four years (three years, more likely) we say Carey was “almost as good as the Cactus Comet” I’ll take that. That’s pretty damn good.