The Latest Heisman Buzz
Heisman Buzz Week 3
Don’t look now but many teams are now a quarter of the way through their 2024 football schedules and early storylines are taking shape.
There is no shortage of surprise teams, both pleasant and unpleasant, as well as players who have put their best cleats forward while the weather is still warm and made early statements in this year’s Heisman race.
So let’s get to the latest buzz!
Miami’s Cam Ward is about as buzz worthy as it comes these days. He led the 3-0 Hurricanes to a 62-0 throttling of Ball State on Saturday with 346 passing yards and five TD passes. It marked his third straight 300-yard outing to start the season and his five TDs was one off the school record.
He now has 1,035 yards and 11 TDs in three games, completing 73% of his passes.
The college football site on3.com polled its top 5 writers among their current Heisman favorites and Ward came out on top. He also led Fansided’s top 10 list.
Second at On3 was Alabama QB Jalen Milroe, who turned in a huge road effort in leading the Crimson Tide to a 42-10 win at Wisconsin with three passing TDs and another two on the ground. He completed 12-of-17 passes for 196 yards and rushed for 75 more yards on 14 carries.
Third on the list was last week’s Official Heisman Trophy Podcast guest Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss, who threw for 377 yards and two scores and rushed for one in a 40-6 wallop of Wake Forest (Milroe, by the way, was a Week 2 guest).
Dark horse Heisman candidates are the most fun to keep an eye on because you never know where the ride will take you. One to watch is Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson, who has the Wildcats to a 3-0 start and a No. 13 ranking heading into a week 4 battle at BYU.
He led Kansas State to a 31-7 win over No 20 Arizona last week with 156 yards passing and 110 yards rushing and has 490 passing yards and 187 yards on the ground.
Johnson was this week’s guest on The Official Heisman Trophy Podcast and you can hear his interview HERE.
Leading Heisman candidate Quinn Ewers of Texas missed most of his game last week due to an abdominal strain, which gave freshman Arch Manning the opportunity to flex his QB muscles on Texas-San Antonio. He threw for 223 yards on 9-of-12 passing with four TDs while also running for one.
Should Ewers come back soon, he could come right back into the Heisman race. Should Manning play extensively this season, well, let’s just say CBS’s Dennis Dodd already has Manning No. 2 on his current Heisman list.
Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel got untracked and led the Ducks to a big win over Oregon State in the Civil War rivalry game Saturday, throwing for 291 yards and two scores on 20-of-24 passing while rushing for 64 yards on four carries for another score.
Gabriel didn’t crack the On3 poll but was No. 3 on Fansided’s.
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is a Heisman candidate on the rise, another SEC QB having led his team to a 3-0 start. He passed for 173 yards on 10 completions in a blowout win over Kent State in which he saw partial action. The No. 6 Vols take on No. 15 Oklahoma in the Sooners’ first SEC home game, which would serve as a great way to make a Heisman impression should Iamaleava have a big game.
Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter continues to defy gravity, or at least college football traditions, and thrive as a two-way player for the Buffaloes.
He caught 13 balls for 100 yards and two scores in Colorado’s win at Colorado State on Saturday, giving him 30 receptions for 342 yards and five scores so far. He also has 11 tackles as a defensive back, one for loss, and one interception, which came last week.
Remarkably, he played 123 of CU’s 138 snaps from scrimmage. He also set a CU record with his fourth straight 100-yard receiving game.
NBC’s Nicole Auerbach, another early-season guest of the Heisman Trophy Podcast, has Hunter fifth in her most recent Heisman Top 5, saying:
“Heisman Trophy voters like myself have a duty to seek out the very best players in the sport. Even if they aren’t quarterbacks. Even if they aren’t on CFP contenders. And Hunter deserves our attention for the rest of the season, which is why I’ve got him on my top-five list this week. It’s where he deserves to be, but it’s also a reminder to both my peers and myself not to forget about him over the coming weeks.”
Her top 5, by the way, features Ward, Dart, Milroe, Iamaleava and Hunter, in that order.
Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and USC QB Miller Moss — also both early-season Heisman Trophy Podcast guests — had byes last week. Jeanty is still high on many people’s early Heisman charts while Moss has a big opportunity this weekend as he leads the Trojans into the Big House to take on Michigan.
Georgia QB Carson Beck looked human, as did the top-ranked Bulldogs, in their nail-biting win at Kentucky last week. But Beck and Georgia have a chance to make a statement as they travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Milroe’s Bulldogs’ squad on Saturday.
The winning QB in that matchup will have Heisman voters’ full attention. Onto Week 4!
