A player is only eligible if he was not in a power conference during that season. For example a Utah player while they were in the Mountain West can win, any season put up after the move to the PAC-12 is ineligible.

2000: LaDainian Tomlinson (RB, TCU). He had 2,158 yards and 22 touchdowns but did more than just carry the ball, he carried TCU out of obscurity and into the national conversation. When he arrived TCU was a ghost of a program: two bowl trips in three decades and unranked since the days of black and white TV. That season didn’t just change the narrative, it rewrote the DNA. It was the start of twelve 10 win seasons in 18 years. One back lit the match, and the whole program caught fire.

2001: David Carr (QB, Fresno State). The season opened with upsets over Colorado, #10 Oregon State, and #23 Wisconsin. Turning Carr into a household name and landing him on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He threw for 4,308 yards and 42 touchdowns and when it mattered most he was calm and surgical. Leading a game winning drive at Colorado State that sealed his legend and ensured he would be a top pick in the NFL draft. Against fellow Group of Five teams he was unstoppable, averaging over 350 yards and 3.5 touchdowns per game.

2002: Byron Leftwich (QB, Marshall). Leftwich carved up defenses for 4,268 yards and 38 touchdowns, but what turned him into a legend wasn’t just the numbers. Playing on a broken leg, literally carried down the field by his linemen between plays, he kept slinging in a warrior performance against Akron that still echoes in Group of Five lore. That season, he spread the ball with precision and swagger, leading an offense that couldn’t be keyed on. Three receivers topped 70 catches, 990 yards, and five scores. They knew it was coming. They still couldn’t stop it.

2003: Ben Roethlisberger (QB, Miami). Roethlisberger threw for 4,486 yards and 37 touchdowns, launching Miami into the stratosphere as one of the highest scoring teams in the country. His 377 yard shootout win over Cincinnati was vintage Big Ben: sharp, explosive, and completely in command. It’s still the only time in the last 40 years Miami finished ranked, and they didn’t sneak in. They landed in the top 10 of the final AP poll. The rest of the roster combined for five starts in the NFL. He carried the whole show.

Photo by Tom Smart

2004: Alex Smith (QB, Utah). Before he became the NFL’s top pick, Alex Smith was dismantling defenses with ruthless efficiency. He threw for 2,952 yards, ran for nearly 500 more, and totaled 42 touchdowns while leading Utah to a perfect 12-0 season. Week 1 against Texas A&M was the breakout (three passing scores, two rushing, 435 total yards) and he never looked back. That year, Smith didn’t just lead a great team, he broke barriers. Utah became the first Group of Five program to crash the BCS party, and the sport would never be the same. Here he is, slicing through Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl.

2005: DeAngelo Williams (RB, Memphis). Williams rumbled for 1,964 yards and at least 123 in every game after Week 1, as steady and dominant as they come. His 236 yard takeover against UTEP, sealed by a late game winner, locked in his status as a Memphis legend. To say he carried the offense undersells it. This was the seventh worst passing attack in the country, and it didn’t matter. Teams could sell out to stop the run as much as they wanted and he still averaged 6.3 yards a carry and nearly 180 a game. Williams accounted for over half the team’s touchdowns that season. Everyone knew where the ball was going. Nobody could stop it.

2006: Colt Brennan (QB, Hawai‘i). Brennan was a flamethrower, torching defenses for 5,549 yards and 58 touchdowns in a season that turned Hawai‘i games into must see madness. He dropped the game winner on Purdue with a minute to go in a 42–35 shootout on the island. Outside of a season opening trip to Alabama, no one held this offense under 32 points. Six different receivers topped 690 yards. That’s not just chemistry, that’s a clinic. This wasn’t just a high flying attack. It was the best quarterback in the country letting it rip every Saturday.

2007: Dan Lefevour (QB, Central Michigan). LeFevour did it all: 3,652 yards through the air, 1,122 more on the ground, and 46 total touchdowns. At the time, only Vince Young had ever hit the 3000/1000 mark in a single season. Then came Dan. Against Ball State, he went off for six touchdowns and nearly 500 total yards. Clocked in. Clocked out. He was the engine of everything, accounting for over 75% of Central Michigan’s offense. His top target? A true freshman named Antonio Brown, barely 5'10 and already cooking defenders.

2008: Nate Davis (QB, Ball State). Davis had Ball State at 12-0 and brushing up against BCS dreams, throwing for over 3,500 yards and 26 touchdowns. His clutch fourth quarter drive to beat Central Michigan gave him the final word over LeFevour. This program has spent just 11 weeks ranked in its history, 10 of them came this season. By the end Davis held the top two spots in school history for passing yards and passing touchdowns. And he did it all without using the laces. That’s got to count for something.

Bsuorangecrush, Public domain

2009: Kellen Moore (QB, Boise State). No quarterback ever made it look easier than Kellen Moore. In 2009, he threw 39 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions while leading Boise State to a perfect season and a #4 finish. There wasn’t one jaw dropping moment, there were 13 flawless performances. He opened the season by taking down Oregon, in a game remembered more for a postgame punch than Moore’s brilliance. But if you watched him then, you knew: he was playing chess while everyone else was stuck on checkers. Here is a picture of Moore dropping back to pass in that Oregon game.

2010: Kellen Moore (QB, Boise State). Kellen Moore becomes the G5’s first two time Heisman winner, and you could make an argument for either of the other 2 seasons he played too. He threw for 3,845 yards, 35 touchdowns, and opened the season by dropping a walk off dime to beat No. 13 Virginia Tech. Smooth, unshakable, always a step ahead. The only blemish? A missed 26 yard field goal at Nevada that handed Moore the first regular season loss of his career. As a junior.

Case Keenum

2011: Case Keenum (QB, Houston). Case Keenum didn’t just rewrite the record books, he torched them. With 5,631 yards and 48 touchdowns in his final season, he led Houston to 13 wins and humiliated Penn State in the bowl game. The crown jewel? Nine touchdowns on a Thursday night against Rice. A former two star recruit, Keenum still holds the all time NCAA records for passing yards, touchdowns, and 300 yard games. For a program that hadn’t sniffed the AP poll in 17 years, Keenum kicked the door down.

2012: Jordan Lynch (QB, Northern Illinois). Lynch was a dual threat menace, piling up over 3,100 passing yards and 1,800 more on the ground. A stat line that barely sounds real. His game saving burst against Army was the perfect snapshot of why no defense ever slept easy. He threw for 200 and ran for 100 in eight different games, breaking Denard Robinson’s NCAA record for rushing yards in a season by a quarterback. And this wasn’t some empty calorie stat monster. In the Orange Bowl, Northern Illinois entered the fourth quarter down just one score to Florida State.

2013: Jordan Lynch (QB, Northern Illinois). He followed it up with 4,800 total yards and 47 touchdowns, cementing his place as Group of Five royalty. The comeback drive to stun Iowa in the opener set the tone for a second straight throne. He broke his own NCAA record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a season, and broke the single game mark. Twice. Over the final six weeks of the regular season, Lynch ran for 1,139 yards and 16 touchdowns. That’s not a hot streak. That’s a one man avalanche.

2014: Rashard Higgins (WR, Colorado State). Higgins caught everything thrown his way, tallying 1,750 yards and 17 touchdowns. Against Utah State, he was the offense. He had 187 yards receiving that day, the rest of the team had 131 combined yards rushing and receiving. Outside of the season opener he was never held to fewer than 98 yards, earning himself consensus All American honors for the year. Not bad for a 2 star recruit whose only had 1 other FBS offer coming out of high school.

2015: Greg Ward (QB, Houston). Ward shredded defenses for over 3,900 total yards and 38 touchdowns, capping the season with a Peach Bowl win and a top 10 finish. He outdueled Lamar Jackson in a game that’s aged like fine wine. The only loss on the schedule? A fluke at UConn, where Ward was knocked out after just four pass attempts. That game made it clear: this team was good, but Ward was the reason they were great. He finished just 170 passing yards shy of the 3,000/1,000 club, a mark he almost certainly would’ve hit if not for that injury.

U.S. Army Garrison - Miami, Public domain

2016: Quinton Flowers (QB, South Florida). Quinton Flowers was chaos incarnate, slicing up defenses with 2,812 passing yards, 1,530 rushing, and 42 total touchdowns. On any given play, he could torch you through the air or make a dozen defenders miss. Against Memphis, he threw for 263, ran for 210, and scored five touchdowns in a wild 49–42 win. But Flowers was more than a stat machine, he was must watch football. If you haven’t seen his highlights, go fix that now. Here is a picture of him in open space against Western Kentucky in the 2015 Miami Beach Bowl.

2017: Rashad Penny (RB, San Diego State). Penny put up 2,248 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns, he was unstoppable. Against Nevada he broke 200 yards, one of 6 times that season, then tacked on a punt return touchdown and a kickoff return touchdown for good measure. The kind of explosiveness that gets you drafted in the 1st round. And it wasn’t just G5 stat padding either. Against Stanford and Arizona State, he combined for 460 scrimmage yards and a 99 yard kick return score. If your team was playing the Aztecs, you held your breath every time Penny touched the ball.

2018: McKenzie Milton (QB, UCF). Milton led UCF to a second straight unbeaten regular season with 34 total touchdowns and poise for days. His fourth quarter takeover against Memphis made sure the streak stayed alive. His numbers could have been even more impressive, in the final game of the regular season he suffered a devastating knee injury that forced him to miss the final 2 games of the year and effectively ended his career. If that moment never happens, he likely finishes with a resume rivaled only by Kellen Moore at this level.

2019: Brady White (QB, Memphis). White threw for over 4,000 yards and 33 scores while steering Memphis to a conference title and top 20 finish. He sealed it with a final minute touchdown in the championship game against Cincinnati. He retired as Memphis's all time leading passer in yards and touchdowns, as well as the winningest QB in school history. In the Cotton Bowl against Penn State and a top 10 defense he threw for 400 yards and had the Tigers within 6 points until there was just 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter.

2020: Zach Wilson (QB, BYU). Wilson made BYU must watch TV while everyone was stuck inside during a pandemic. 33 touchdowns, 3,692 yards, and pure backyard style magic. All while still being efficient enough to break Steve Young's school completion percentage record at 73.5%. Sorry BYU fans, but when you play 12 G5 teams in a year you were a G5 team. Their only loss this season came in a road game scheduled just 2 days before kickoff because of covid craziness. A game that has gone on to be known as Mormons vs Mullets.

R24KBerg Photos, CC BY 2.0

2021: Desmond Ridder (QB, Cincinnati). Ridder took Cincinnati from back to back 4-8 seasons before he got there to the College Football Playoff in just four years. In 2021, he threw for 3,334 yards and 30 touchdowns, but more importantly, he won. His Heisman moment came in a top 10 showdown at Notre Dame, 300 yards and one of the biggest wins in program history. He finished his career with just seven losses, two of which came against Georgia and Alabama in New Year’s games. Since he left, neither Cincinnati nor Fickell at Wisconsin have come close to that level again. Here he is dropping back to pass in a game at East Carolina.

2022: Tyjae Spears (RB, Tulane). Spears was untouchable, racking up 1,837 total yards and 21 touchdowns on a 12 win Tulane squad. In the conference title game, he averaged nine yards a carry. UCF had no chance. Michael Pratt and Willie Fritz get a lot of the credit for elevating this program to where it is today, but Spears was as irreplacable as anyone on Tulane this season. 200 yards on over 12 yards a carry in the Cotton Bowl against USC was the cherry on top of a great college career.

2023: Ashton Jeanty (RB, Boise State). After an early season injury to the starter, Jeanty didn’t just fill in, he took over. He racked up 1,347 rushing yards, 569 receiving, and found the end zone 19 times. No player in the country averaged more yards from scrimmage per game. He was the focal point, the safety valve, and the sparkplug for Boise State all at once. Even though the team let go of their coach, they could still lean on their leader to get them another conference championship. And the best part? He wasn't done. Not even close...

2024: Ashton Jeanty (RB, Boise State). Jeanty was a national sensation, rushing for 1,031 yards in the first five games and ending the season with over 2,600. Nobody could stop him, he is the poster boy for the G5 Heisman and the closest any of these players came to actually winning it. The craziest Jeanty stat: he finished with more yards after contact than anybody else in the nation had rushing yards. Jeanty alone was 42% of the offense on a team that made the playoffs. A top 5 all time season from a running back, at any level.