Heisman Rankings: New CFB Star Takes Over No. 1 Spot After Hunter Injury
By Dan Lyons,
11 hours ago
Winning the Heisman Trophy requires both explosive, star-making performances and incredible consistency week over week. With the long college football season, staying healthy is also key. No Heisman winner has missed a regular-season game since Charlie Ward in 1993.
Quinn Ewers was a Heisman favorite after leading Texas to a win at Michigan earlier in the year, but he missed time with an injury suffered in September. He just returned for the Longhorns’ blowout win over Oklahoma but has almost certainly missed too much time to recover and win the award. Our No. 1 contender Travis Hunter, Colorado’s incredible wide receiver/cornerback, went down with an apparent shoulder injury in the Buffaloes’ 31-28 loss to Kansas State.
Hunter left last Saturday’s game early, before he could make the kind of unprecedented impact to which the Buffaloes have grown accustomed. He is still very much alive for the award if he recovers quickly and helps Colorado compete. Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders said he should be ready to play on Saturday against Arizona, which features elite wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan .
Here are Athlon’s Heisman Trophy rankings heading into Week 8 of the season:
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1. Ashton Jeanty — RB, Boise State (Last week: 2)
Ashton Jeanty has rushed for more than 200 yards in a game three times this season.
Hawai’i probably did the best job of any team this season limiting Jeanty this season. He still ran for 217 yards, scored a pair of touchdowns and averaged seven yards per carry (albeit a season low). This is all to say that even in Jeanty’s worst game of the season, he had a better game than 99% of running backs will ever have at the FBS level. There is no more consistently unstoppable player in college football this season, and his potential to win the Heisman is becoming very real .
Week 7 stats: (31-28 L vs. Kansas State): 3 receptions, 26 yards; 1 tackle Season stats (4-1): 49 receptions, 587 yards (12.0 YPR), 6 TD; 17 total tackles, 2 INT, 3 PD, 1 FF
Hunter left in the second quarter of Colorado’s loss to Kansas State after a relatively quiet start to the game by his impressive standards. Head coach Deion Sanders said the two-way superstar should be ready to go by this Saturday, when the Buffaloes take on Arizona. If Hunter bounces right back, he’s still very much in play for the award. A standout defensive performance against standout Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan would be a great data point in his favor.
Miami had its bye at the right time, after two very shaky performances versus Virginia Tech and at Cal. Ward put up big numbers in those games, but also made some of the mistakes that the gunslinger had shown earlier in his career. Even so, he is in a very strong position given Miami’s undefeated record and the recent slip-ups of his main quarterback rivals in the Heisman race.
Gabriel is the biggest riser of the week, putting together a sensational game to knock off Ohio State by one point. He hit his elite cadre of wide receivers for big play after big play, connecting on five plays of 25-plus yards during the game, though his signature Heisman moment may have been the 27-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Ohio State would take the lead back, but Gabriel completed all five or his passes for 41 yards to set up Oregon’s decisive field goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game. In a week when players like Jalen Milroe struggled and Jaxson Dart and Shedeur Sanders picked up second losses, Gabriel’s stock is way up.
5. Jalen Milroe — QB, Alabama (Last week: 4)
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe had two touchdowns on the ground against South Carolina but struggled throughout the game with two interceptions and a costly safety.
While Gabriel surges, Milroe is heading in the opposite direction since his own signature performance against Georgia. Alabama’s loss to Vanderbilt poked a hole in his Heisman candidacy, but his struggles in the Crimson Tide’s tight win over South Carolina, a game in which he was arguably outplayed by LaNorris Sellers, may have hurt his stock even more. Milroe looked great early in the game, but South Carolina’s explosive pass rush started to really give him trouble toward the middle of the contest. A particular lowlight came at when Milroe was flushed into the end zone and called for intentional grounding, resulting in a safety that helped South Carolina pick up momentum late in the first half. Alabama's game at Tennessee on Saturday will pit Milroe against another impressive pass rush, and it also gives him a chance to get back in the top tier of the Heisman race.
Dart feasted on underwhelming opponents early in the season, throwing for at least 377 yards against each of Ole Miss’ first four opponents: Furman, Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest and Georgia Southern. Things have taken a real turn for the worse in SEC play. Ole Miss is just 1-2 in league play, and Dart is underperforming during that stretch, completing just 61.5% of his throws for 8.6 yards per attempt, well under his season averages. Ole Miss is off this weekend and should be a solid favorite at home against Oklahoma in Week 9, although Brent Venables’ defense has been impressive this year.
7. Shedeur Sanders — QB, Colorado (Last week: 7)
Week 7 stats: (31-28 L vs. Kansas State): 34-for-40, 388 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT Season stats (4-2): 172-for-237 (72.6%), 2,018 yards (8.51 YPA), 17 TD, 4 INT; 49 carries, -25 yards, 1 TD
Colorado picked up its second loss of the season, though Sanders deserves plenty of credit for helping keep the Buffaloes in the game. Sanders lost his top two targets, Hunter and Jimmy Horn Jr., as well as Terrell Timmons Jr. and Omarion Miller, during the game. Miller, the fifth receiver for the Buffs, was in the middle of a breakout game for Colorado with eight catches for 145 yards. Sanders still nearly pulled out the win, leading Colorado from a 10-point deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead before Kansas State scored a go-ahead touchdown in the last minute of regulation. Hunter and Horn are set to play against Arizona this weekend in what should be a shootout between Sanders and Noah Fifita.
8. Cade Klubnik — QB, Clemson (Last week: NR)
Week 7 stats: (49-14 W at Wake Forest): 31-for-41, 309 yards, 3 TD; 7 carries, 30 yards Season stats (4-2): 123-for-184 (66.8%), 1,528 yards (8.3 YPA), 17 TD, 2 INT; 35 carries, 198 yards (5.7 YPA), 4 TD
The first game of Clemson’s season, a 34-3 loss to Georgia, had some questioning whether Klubnik was the answer at quarterback for the Tigers. He averaged less than five yards per attempt, threw an interception and looked completely overmatched by a Georgia defense that has shown cracks in the weeks since. Klubnik had been decent in 2023 but far from dominant. Clemson has quietly climbed back into the top 10 since that Georgia loss, and Klubnik is a major reason, with 17 touchdowns to just one interception since Week 1. If he leads Clemson back to the College Football Playoff, he may find himself in New York this December.
The Heisman Trophy is nothing but a joke anymore. It hasn’t been about the best player in college football in more than 20 years. Nothing more than a popularity contest.
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