The 'Texas Monthly' cover depicted the Man of Bronze as the Man of Steel, with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner leaving a jet steam trailing behind him from his takeoff point at the 50-yard line of Kyle Field.
Dredge up whatever Superman comparison you want for the NCAA -- Lex Luthor, kryptonite, Doomsday and on and on -- but it holds Johnny Manziel's hopes of equaling Archie Griffin as the only two-time Heisman winner in its hands, with the Texas A&M quarterback under investigation amid allegations that he accepted money for autographs.
The uncertainty makes the Aug. 31 opener against Rice and the Week 2 game vs. Sam Houston State the most important dates in Manziel's repeat bid, not that Sept. 14 clash with No. 1 Alabama. That's because as recent history tells us, more than one missed game can kill a campaign.
But Manziel's eligibility concerns are just the first -- and potentially not the last -- hurdle he faces in joining Griffin. As the last seven Heisman winners to return to school found out, the degree of difficulty in winning trophy No. 2 has grown exponentially over the years.
Here's a look at what befell each winner in their follow-up bids.
The 2009 winner's follow-up campaign was really over before it even began. While Notre Dame's Angelo Bertelli claimed the trophy in 1943 despite missing four games, his absences were due to being activated by the Marines during World War II. In the modern era, only two winners have sat out, Charles White (1979) and Charlie Ward (1993), and they both missed just one game. Ingram was absent for the Crimson Tide's first two outings with a knee injury and he wouldn't even crack the top 10 in that year's voting.
Unlike Ingram, Bradford did play in the season opener as a defending Heisman winner -- but it didn't last long. The junior sprained an AC joint in his throwing shoulder in a loss to BYU and missed the second half. While he managed to return four weeks later against Baylor -- he threw for 389 yards and a TD in the Sooners’ win -- he would re-injure his shoulder the following game vs. Texas, ending his season. Bradford entered the NFL draft that spring, passing up on another chance at a second Heisman.
The first sophomore to ever win the award, Tebow finished third in his first chance at a repeat despite having more first-place votes (309) than Bradford (300) or second-place Colt McCoy (266). Where Tebow faltered was in the second-place votes, where he fell well behind Bradford (315) and McCoy (288) and came 151 points from history. While the Gator did return to New York as a senior -- joining Herschel Walker as the only three-time finalists -- he seemed to suffer some backlash in falling 914 points behind Ingram and 425 behind the next-closest finalist, Ndamukong Suh.
His numbers were actually better as a senior (3,815 yards and 38 TDs) than in his Heisman-winning junior year -- but what he couldn't counter with sheer numbers alone was a simply captivating teammate. Reggie Bush claimed 784 of the 892 first-place votes, leaving Leinart a distant third. The Trojans joined Nebraska's Mike Rozier and Turner Gill as the only teammates to have a winner and another player in the top five in voting in the last 30 years, though it's no longer recognized with Bush's win vacated in 2010.
In 2001, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and then came back in '02 only to tear the ACL in his right knee. That's how, six days after winning the Heisman in '04, he was granted a sixth year of eligibility for a medical hardship. But much like Leinart the following ear, White's campaign was hurt by a teammate as freshman Adrian Peterson finished 29 points ahead of the third-place White, while Leinart took home the hardware. White would have to settle on the Davey O'Brien Award, which he won for the second straight year.
He got off to a campaign-killing start as the Cougars opened 0-3 with road losses to Florida State, UCLA and Penn State, in which Detmer threw four interceptions. While Detmer rebounded -- he passed for 3,267 yards and 30 TDs in the nine weeks before ballots were due -- to become a consensus All-American for the second straight year and the Davey O'Brien winner once again, he was a distant third behind winner Desmond Howard (2,077 points), while Casey Weldon (503) was second. Detmer's place was driven home as he received 78.6 percent (130) of the third-place votes.
The first player post-Griffin to try and equal him is the one who actually came the closest. He led the nation with 23 rushing touchdowns to go along with 1,670 yards and in the two weeks before ballots were due he had 282 yards vs. Missouri and torched Nebraska -- which had the nation's top-ranked rushing defense -- for 247 yards. But many voters cast their ballots before those performances for USC's Charles White, who received 453 first-place votes to Sims' 82 in winning by 922 points.
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