Time For Turkey And The Heisman Buzz
In the second-to-last regular-season weekend of the 2024 college football campaign, seven ranked team fell, many with players with Heisman aspirations. But as we’ve learned in recent years, late losses aren’t as severe of a hit for Heisman fortunes that we once were.
Let’s take a peek at media buzz heading into Thanksgiving.
The team at The Athletic released its latest 27-person Heisman Trophy straw poll and Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter was comfortably in first with 24 first-place votes.
Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty was a solid second, also getting two first-place votes, while Miami QB Cam Ward was third with the final first-place vote. Those three had the lion’s share of the votes.
Penn State TE Tyler Warren was fourth, followed by Oregon QB Dillion Gabriel, Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson, Kansas RB Devin Neal and Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo.
—Make sure to check out this week’s Official Heisman Trophy Podcast, which includes an interview with Penn State’s Warren as well as with The Athletic Editor-In-Chief Stewart Mandel, who shares his take on the Heisman race and the College Football Playoff.
Hunter was solidly in first despite his Colorado Buffs falling in an upset to Kansas. And this is why. Hunter caught eight passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns — including this 51-yarder — to go with seven tackles at DB and a pass breakup.
Jeanty, meanwhile, keeps putting up massive rushing numbers, including 169 yards last week against Wyoming despite missing part of the 17-13 comeback win with a leg injury. He now has NCAA bests of 2,062 yards, 275 attempts and 27 rushing TDs.
The folks at On3 polled its sportswriting staff following Week 13 for another straw poll and saw a tight race.
Hunter, who is tied for fifth nationally with 82 receptions, tied for third with 11 TD catches and seventh with 1,036 receiving yards, led that poll as well.
Jeanty was a solid second with Ward third and Gabriel fourth. Ward led a 42-14 win over Wake Forest last week with 280 yards passing and two scores. He is second nationally with 3,774 yards passing with an NCAA-leading 34 TD passes.
Gabriel, meanwhile, is quarterbacking the top-ranked and undefeated Ducks with 3,066 passing yards and 22 TD passes and six rushing scores.
Warren was fifth, SMU QB Kevin Jennings was sixth while Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson and Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard were tied for seventh.
In ESPN’s latest rankings, Hunter was first with with nine of 12 first-place votes.
Here’s another Hunter note — he is the first player with 1,000 receiving yards and three interceptions in a season since at least 1980. OK, one more. Hunter has played 640 snaps on defense and 602 on offense with 24 on special teams.
Jeanty was second, getting the other 3 first-place votes. Here’s a good note on Jeanty. He needs three more rushing scores to join 1988 Heisman winner Barry Sanders as the only players in FBS history with 30 rushing touchdowns and 2,000 yards rushing in a single season.
Ward was third in the ESPN poll with Gabriel fourth and ASU’s Skattebo fifth. Skattebo has led a surprising Sun Devil team and is second nationally in all-purpose yards with 1,681 (1,221 rushing, 460 passing), behind only Jeanty.
Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders was ranked fourth in Fansided’s latest Heisman poll behind Hunter, Jeanty and Ward. Sanders is fifth nationally with 3,488 passing yards and tied for second with 30 passing TDs. Gabriel was fifth while Clemson QB Cade Klubnik was sixth and Ohio State QB Will Howard moved into seventh. Army’s Bryson Daily was eighth.
Howard orchestrated the Buckeyes’ big win over previously unbeaten Indiana last week and he leads Ohio State against Michigan this week. Another huge effort could rally some late-season Heisman support.
