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The 1951 season

Tennessee finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 10–⁠1 under Bob Neyland, then lost to Maryland 28–⁠13 in the Sugar Bowl; the poll came out before the bowls. Illinois and Michigan State also claim the national title. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 3 Maryland 28, No. 1 Tennessee 13 (Jan 1, 1952). 35 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Dick Kazmaier, RB, Princeton, who also won the Maxwell.

The Heisman vote: Dick Kazmaier 1,777 points, Hank Lauricella 424
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Dick Kazmaier RB, Princeton1,77750610745
Hank Lauricella RB, Tennessee4244510873
Babe Parilli QB, Kentucky344327990
Bill McColl E, Stanford313425675
Johnny Bright RB, Drake230314939
Johnny Karras RB, Illinois223156058
Larry Isbell QB, Baylor163292428
Hugh McElhenny RB, Washington103181715
Ollie Matson RB, San Francisco9562821
Don Coleman OT, Michigan State9362329

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published.

The 1951 Maryland team
The 1951 Maryland teamPhoto: University of Maryland, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The 1951 Maryland season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1TennesseeSoutheastern Conference
2Michigan StateIndependent
3MarylandSouthern Conference
4IllinoisWestern Conference
5Georgia TechSoutheastern Conference
6PrincetonIndependent
7StanfordPacific Coast Conference
8WisconsinWestern Conference
9BaylorSouthwest Conference
10OklahomaBig Seven
11TCUSouthwest Conference
12CaliforniaPacific Coast Conference
13VirginiaIndependent
14San FranciscoIndependent
15KentuckySoutheastern Conference
16Boston UniversityIndependent
17UCLAPacific Coast Conference
18Washington StatePacific Coast Conference
19ClemsonSouthern Conference
19Holy CrossIndependent

Biggest upsets

Oct 20, 1951Arkansas 16, 4Texas 14
Oct 13, 1951SMU 27, 5Notre Dame 20
Sep 29, 1951Ole Miss 21, 6Kentucky 17
Oct 20, 1951TCU 20, 6Texas A&M 14
Nov 3, 1951TCU 20, 8Baylor 7
Sep 29, 1951LSU 13, 9Alabama 7
Nov 3, 1951UCLA 21, 9California 7
Nov 24, 195119California 20, 3Stanford 7
Nov 24, 1951UCLA 21, 11USC 7
Sep 29, 1951TCU 28, 12Nebraska 7
Oct 6, 1951USC 20, 12Washington 13
Oct 20, 1951Kentucky 35, 12Villanova 13

Ranked teams that lost as the betting favorite, the longest shots first, with the winner’s odds on the line; before lines are on file, ranked teams beaten by unranked or lower-ranked ones.

The AP poll, week by week

The AP poll’s top 10 in 1951, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4Wk 5Wk 6Wk 7Wk 8Wk 9Wk 10FinalOklahoma: Wk 1 No. 4, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 11, Wk 4 No. 19, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 No. 17, Wk 7 No. 14, Wk 8 No. 12, Wk 9 No. 12, Wk 10 No. 10, Final No. 1010 OklahomaBaylor: Wk 1 No. 13, Wk 2 No. 19, Wk 3 No. 12, Wk 4 No. 10, Wk 5 No. 7, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 16, Wk 8 No. 10, Wk 9 No. 10, Wk 10 No. 9, Final No. 99 BaylorWisconsin: Wk 1 No. 15, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 No. 14, Wk 6 No. 10, Wk 7 No. 9, Wk 8 No. 8, Wk 9 No. 8, Wk 10 No. 7, Final No. 88 WisconsinStanford: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 No. 19, Wk 4 No. 13, Wk 5 No. 11, Wk 6 No. 11, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 8, Final No. 77 StanfordPrinceton: Wk 1 No. 18, Wk 2 No. 14, Wk 3 No. 13, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 5, Final No. 66 PrincetonGeorgia Tech: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 11, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 7, Wk 10 No. 6, Final No. 55 Georgia TechIllinois: Wk 1 No. 10, Wk 2 No. 8, Wk 3 No. 7, Wk 4 No. 8, Wk 5 No. 4, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 4, Final No. 44 IllinoisMaryland: Wk 1 No. 16, Wk 2 No. 9, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 7, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 3, Final No. 33 MarylandMichigan State: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 1, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 2, Final No. 22 Michigan StateTennessee: Wk 1 No. 1, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 2, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 1, Final No. 11 Tennessee
The top 10 of the final AP poll and where each stood every week before it; a gap is a week out of the Top 25. Hover or tab to a line for its weeks.

Climbed

  1. Georgia Techunranked → No. 5
  2. Stanfordunranked → No. 7
  3. TCUunranked → No. 11
  4. MarylandNo. 16 → No. 3
  5. Virginiaunranked → No. 13

Fell

  1. Ohio StateNo. 3 → unranked
  2. Texas A&MNo. 6 → unranked
  3. WashingtonNo. 8 → unranked
  4. AlabamaNo. 9 → unranked
  5. TexasNo. 11 → unranked

From the season’s first AP poll (the preseason poll) to the final one.

National leaders

Passing yardsDon Klosterman (Loyola-LA)1,843 yds
Passing touchdownsBabe Parilli (Kentucky)19 TD
Passer ratingDick Kazmaier (Princeton)155.3
Rushing yardsOllie Matson (San Francisco)1,566 yds
Yards per carryBuck McPhail (Oklahoma)8.56
ReceptionsDewey McConnell (Wyoming)47 catches
Receiving yardsEd Barker (Washington State)864 yds
Yards per catchEd Barker (Washington State)18.8
PointsOllie Matson (San Francisco)126 pts
Total offenseDick Kazmaier (Princeton)1,827 yds
Punt return yardsTom Murphy (Holy Cross)533 yds
Punt return averageBill Blackstock (Tennessee)25.9
Kickoff return yardsChuck Hill (New Mexico)504 yds
Kickoff return averageBob Mischak (Army)31.3

The NCAA’s official leaders. From Wikipedia’s yearly NCAA leader lists for passing, rushing, receiving, scoring, total offense and returns.

Conference champions

Major college

Big Seven
Oklahoma
Border Conference
Texas Tech
Mid-American Conference
Cincinnati
Missouri Valley Conference
Tulsa
Pacific Coast Conference
Stanford
Skyline Conference
Utah
Southeastern Conference
Georgia Tech and Tennessee (shared)
Southern Conference
Maryland and VMI (shared)
Southwest Conference
TCU
Western Conference
Illinois

Small college

California Collegiate Athletic Conference
San Diego State
Gulf Coast Conference
North Texas
Gulf States Conference
Southern Miss
Indiana Intercollegiate Conference
Valparaiso
Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Northern Illinois
Lone Star Conference
East Texas A&M
Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Missouri State
North Central Conference
South Dakota
Northern California Athletic Conference
UC Davis
Ohio Valley Conference
Murray State
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Prairie View A&M
Texas Conference
Abilene Christian
Yankee Conference
Maine

From each program’s Wikipedia article, with the conference’s name that season. Titles come from the articles of today’s FBS and FCS programs, so a title shared with a school outside them lists only one champion.

Consensus All-Americans

11 playersAll 16 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1951 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1951 All-America teams page.

The 1951 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

From the newspapers

The Evening star's story: 1850 Triumph Spartans Case 1918 Rout of Vols One of Worst Defeats For Any NeyIond Team
The bowl3Maryland 28, 1Tennessee 131951 Maryland · 1951 TennesseeEvening star, January 2, 1952, page 46
Read the text

1850 Triumph Spartans Case 1918 Rout of Vols One of Worst Defeats For Any NeyIond Team NEW ORLEANS, Jan. a. Maryland’s all-conquering Terps today were demanding the No. ranking in college football as q result of their glorious accomplishment in beating previously top-ranked Tennessee at its own game in the Sugar Bowl yesterday. There doesn’t appear to be any one in New Orleans ready to raise “a dissenting voice. That 28–⁠13 victory before $4,000 in the big Tulane stadium was the conyincer, for it was one of the worst defeats in the legendary

Public domain, from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through American Stories (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Jan 1, 19526Georgia Tech 17, 9Baylor 14Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19524Illinois 40, 8Stanford 7Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 195217Kentucky 20, 11TCU 7Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 19523Maryland 28, 1Tennessee 13Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 1952Miami 14, Clemson 0Gator Bowl
Jan 1, 1952Texas Tech 25, Pacific 14Sun Bowl