The Heisman race has been almost entirely unexpected this year. Early favorite Arch Manning has virtually played himself out of contention for the award. Contenders Cade Klubnik and Garrett Nussmeier have also slipped and are not remotely good picks for the award right now.
That's left the door wide open, but no one seems to be able to step into it for any length of time. Each week, it feels like there's a new favorite or new contender for the award, and someone who was up for consideration fades from view.
Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson, and Julian Sayin currently lead a pack of contenders that also includes Jeremiyah Love, Marcel Reed, Diego Pavia, Gunnar Stockton, Dante Moore, and many others. It's a muddled group right now.
ESPN's Bill Connelly wrote, "At the end of championship weekend, Mendoza, Simpson and Sayin should all have between 3,300 and 3,600 passing yards with about 33 to 39 touchdowns. Solid work. But if you're a believer in "Heisman Moments," they might not have many marquee opportunities between now and the conference title games."
In the insider's eyes, that could give Pavia and Reed a leg up if they continue to carry their afterthought teams to new heights. Stockton, if he can continue winning games late, could get some love from voters in that instance, too. If Love continues racking up yardage, he might creep into the conversation.
"Maybe in the lack of some obvious 4,000-yard passer, conventional wisdom begins to home in on a defensive player like Miami's Rueben Bain Jr. Or Ohio State's Caleb Downs. This would be a fun year for a change-of-pace pick. Regardless, I don't feel like our current favorites list is quite what we'll have a month from now," Connelly concluded.
The players who were in the race a month ago aren't anymore. The players who are in the race right now may not be in a month. It's been a wild season, and that's not going to change soon.
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