10 Heisman Trophy Hopefuls from 2011 Who Turned out to Be All Hype

Before each college football season, there is always speculation about the next winner of the Heisman Trophy.

"Heisman Watch" begins the moment one season ends and continues all the way up until the next year's Heisman ceremony in New York.

And year after year, there is a list of players who fall off of the Heisman radar and never make their way back onto it.

Here are 10 players who we won't be seeing in New York to receive the 2011 Heisman Trophy.

Denard Robinson

Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson has become the poster child for unreached potential. 

The past two seasons he has come in facing huge expectations, and he lived up to them for the first few weeks of the 2010 and 2011 seasons. But overall, he has yet to live up to his expectations.

He is a very exciting player to watch and is clearly gifted, but hasn't refined the art of passing.

He won't be in the Heisman conversation until he does so.

Robert Griffin III

Baylor's Robert Griffin III is a very good quarterback with amazing athletic ability.

He is also putting up amazing numbers this season and is really showing his worth to NFL scouts.

But he isn't leading his team to victory, something Heisman voters love to see.

More often than not, Heisman winners are on a top team, something Griffin is not on.

Landry Jones

Landry Jones has had a tough task of replacing Sam Bradford as the quarterback at Oklahoma.

But he has stepped up very nicely, having led Oklahoma to the third-best passing offense in the nation.

Sadly for Jones and the rest of Sooner Nation, an 8-1 record does not cut it for a Heisman. On top of that, Jones has lost his best receiver, Ryan Broyles, for the rest of the season.

Oh yeah, and Andrew Luck is still playing for Stanford.

Darron Thomas

Much like many others on this list, Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas has had a solid year as a passer and rusher.

After leading the Ducks to the championship game in 2010, Thomas got his name high on the list of potential Heisman winners in 2011. However once the 2011 season started, he quickly erased his name from that list.

In the season opener, he and the Ducks got demolished by LSU, 40-27. With a loss like that, even to the No. 1 team in the nation (No.4 at game time), Thomas lost all votes he once earned for the 2011 Heisman Trophy.

Russell Wilson

Not many people expected Russell Wilson to play so well at Wisconsin after transferring from North Carolina State.

But Wilson burst onto the Madison scene and rapidly threw his name into the hat as a Heisman candidate.

However, his stock has dropped just as his team has. The Badgers have lost two heartbreakers this season, and the fact that Wilson could not put enough points on the board to begin with has hurt his chances.

Kirk Cousins

Kirk Cousins, the quarterback for Michigan State, was hoping for a big 2011.

But the quarterback's numbers are down across the board. His only signature win was over Wisconsin on a Hail Mary in the closing seconds of the game. Countering that game was a bad performance in a 31-13 loss to Notre Dame in Week 3 and an embarrassing 24-3 loss to Nebraska.

Taylor Martinez

Heading into the 2011 season, the Nebraska quarterback was a player targeted as a Heisman hopeful.

But he has put up very similar numbers to his 2010 season—a mediocre one. He is having a tough time adjusting to his new conference, the Big 10, and it is taking a toll on his Heisman candidacy.

The good news is that Taylor Martinez is only a sophomore and has plenty of time to grow.

Cliff Harris

Defensive back Cliff Harris was going to enter the 2011 college football season as one of the biggest names on the defensive side of the ball.

However his off-field actions have stopped him from doing so. He has been pulled over twice by the police this year, and it has led to two separate suspensions by head coach Chip Kelly.

In the games that Harris has been eligible for, he has looked nothing like the All-American he was last year, and he is slipping in the eyes of NFL scouts.

Stephen Garcia

Quarterback Stephen Garcia arrived in South Carolina with lots of promise and even more problems.

The senior quarterback had trouble with alcohol and the police all four years in South Carolina.

Finally this year, in 2011, he got dismissed from the team after failing a mandatory alcohol screening test.

2011 was supposed to be a big year for Garcia and the Gamecocks, but instead he ended his college career on a whimper. 

Terrelle Pryor

After being one of the most sought after recruits in the nation in 2007, quarterback Terrelle Pryor always seemed just on the verge of greatness at Ohio State.

Looking toward his senior year in 2011, there was much excitement about Pryor as a potential Heisman candidate who could lead the Buckeyes to a national championship.

But Pryor's 2011 season ended before it began.

He got caught up in an NCAA investigation about receiving improper benefits such as free tattoos, multiple cars and selling his own memorabilia while at the university. He got suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season.

But he left Ohio State on June 7th, 2011, and was banned from any contact with the university's athletic program 19 days later.

He is now a backup quarterback on the Oakland Raiders.

And he'll never get the Heisman Trophy that he dreamed of.