The Wall of Heisman Trophy Winner Portraits on the set of ESPN's Virtual 2020 Heisman Ceremony © Kelly Backus / ESPN Images
The Heisman Buzz And The Promise Of An Exciting Final Month
The first College Football Playoff poll came out this week, with the promise of postseason berths for a dozen fortunate teams come December.
There is also the annual promise of a Heisman Trophy for one worthy player in December and while we’re seeing a handful of familiar names populating most college football media rankings, you never know if a November surprise is coming around the corner. So let’s dig right in.
Bleacher Report’s latest rankings —broken down into tier groups — features the same quartet as last week, namely RB Ashton Jeanty of Boise State, WR/CB Travis Hunter of Colorado, QB Cam Ward of Miami and QB Dillon Gabriel of Oregon.
Jeanty is coming off of a 149-yard, two-TD effort in a 56-24 win over San Diego State that gives him a nation-best 1,525 rushing yards and 20 rushing scores. Next up is 3-7 Nevada.
Colorado was off last week but Hunter, a multi-positional-threat (if we can coin a phrase), returns this week against Texas Tech, so figure on another triple-digit total in snaps and a few highlight reel plays.
Gabriel led the top-ranked Ducks into the Big House last week and came out a 38-17 winner. He sees Maryland visit Auzten Stadium this Saturday. Gabriel is sixth national in passing yards (2,665) with 19 TDs and only five interceptions. He is seventh in passing efficiency (171.52).
As for Ward, well, he executed another come-from-behind win for unbeaten Miami last week, turning around a 28-17 third-quarter deficit into a 53-31 win. He threw for 400 yards and five scores, giving him a program-season-record-tying and national-leading 29 TDs this year to go with 3,146 yards, second-best in the country.
Bleacher Report’s second tier features Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke and Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart. Rourke has the Hoosiers at 9-0, already tying a program record for season wins with Michigan coming this weekend. Dart, meanwhile, leads the country in passing yards and is tied for third in TDs (21) thanks to a 515-yard, six-TD exploding against Arkansas in Week 10.
Athlon Sports moved Hunter into its top spot heading into this weekend and placed Ward at No. 2 following his huge game against the Blue Devils. Jeanty was third, Gabriel fourth, Rourke fifth and Dart. The outlet had Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders seventh and Ohio State QB Will Howard eighth.
The New York Post pegged Ward atop its latest rankings, with Jeanty second, Hunter third, Gabriel fourth and Rourke fifth.
On3.com’s latest Heisman straw poll among its staff saw Hunter atop its list with Jeanty in second, Ward third, Gabriel fourth and Rourke fifth. Sanders was sixth and, new to our roundups this year, Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia was seventh.
As On3 writes, “Another week, another win for Vanderbilt. The Commodores are now bowl-eligible at 6-3, a fantastic turnaround after a thoroughly disappointing 2023 campaign. And most of it can be traced to Pavia’s arrival. The quarterback is one of the grittiest players in the country, a fiery competitor who gets the most out of the guys around him. He’s also putting up excellent numbers: 1,677 passing yards and 15 touchdowns, 563 rushing yards and four more scores on the ground.
On3 also had Dart and Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson tied for eighth and Arizona State back Cam Skattebo in 10th. Skattebo is seventh nationally in rushing yards with 1001 with 11 touchdowns while Sampson is ninth nationally in rushing yards (980) with 19 scores, tied second nationally.
The Athletic declared the Heisman race currently a two-player contest between Ward and Hunter.
Hunter, during his bye weekend, appeared on both ESPN’s Gameday and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff”. Here he is on Fox with Heisman winners Mark Ingram and Matt Leinart. And here he is on ESPN chatting with Nick Saban.
ESPN analyst Booger McFarland has made his prediction, saying Tuesday “I think Cam Ward is going to win the Heisman Trophy. He’s been that good throughout this college football season.”
Among the Heisman sleepers out there are Georgia’s Carson Beck, Army’s Bryson Daily, Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson (second nationally in rushing) and BYU QB Jake Retzlaff, who has BYU 8-0 and ranked No. 9 in the first CFP rankings.
