Week 1 of the 2026 season has already given the Heisman race some real shape, and the top of the board looks familiar.
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss stays in front after opening with the kind of late surge that can define a candidacy. Against AP preseason No.
24 Louisville in a 41-38 win, he was shaky early, finishing the first half with 75 passing yards, one interception and nine completions. Then he took over.
Over the final 30 minutes, Chambliss went 12-of-19 for 261 yards and three touchdowns, and he also helped set up the game-winning 48-yard field goal by hitting an 18-yard completion on 3rd-and-6 with less than a minute left.
It was the kind of finish that echoed what he did in last season’s College Football Playoff, when he flashed against Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and later came close to pulling off a semifinal win over Miami. Chambliss keeps showing he can rise in the biggest moments, and close games are quickly becoming his stage.
A trio of players sits behind him after big opening weekends of their own.
Miami wide receiver Malachi Toney made the loudest statistical statement. The sophomore, who turns 19 next week on Sept. 17, piled up 12 catches on 13 targets for a Miami-program record 234 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-6 win over Stanford.
He got rolling immediately, picking up 48 yards on Miami’s first snap before finishing the drive with a 23-yard touchdown. Miami’s schedule may not offer many headline games beyond a Week 10 trip to No.
4 Notre Dame, but Toney may not need many more chances if he keeps posting numbers like that. He’s already acting like he knows where this is headed.
Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith answered with a strong start of his own in the Buckeyes’ 56-3 win over Ball State. Smith finished with eight catches for 151 yards and two touchdowns, including a 48-yard score that put No.
1 Ohio State ahead 7-0. He later added a three-yard touchdown to close out a 28-3 first half, and he celebrated with his own Heisman pose.
Week 2 brings a major test at No. 5 Texas, giving Smith a chance to make an even bigger early push.
Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Heintschel was the surprise name in the mix, but his numbers were impossible to ignore. In a 59-14 win over Miami (Ohio), the sophomore completed 31 of 41 passes for 453 yards and an ACC-record seven passing touchdowns.
He also became the first FBS quarterback to throw for at least 450 yards and seven touchdowns with no interceptions since Joe Burrow did it in 2019, during his Heisman season at LSU. Heintschel will need more performances like that to stay in the conversation, and a Week 2 outing against UCF would help.
There’s also an early dark horse worth watching in LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt. LSU’s 51-10 win over Clemson was a blowout, but Leavitt wasn’t especially clean.
He threw an interception on his second pass and was 8-of-18 before settling in and completing eight of his final 10 attempts. Even so, he was the only FBS quarterback in Week 1 with at least 200 passing yards and 100 rushing yards.
LSU’s last dual-threat quarterback, Jayden Daniels, turned that profile into a Heisman trophy in 2023, and Leavitt is at least putting himself on a similar path.
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The night around Tiger Stadium had plenty going on before LSU even kicked off against Clemson, but one ugly moment at a tailgate ended up overshadowing part of the pregame scene. Kick creator Snarp was punched in the face by an LSU fan during the chaos, and the incident reportedly left him with a broken jaw, turning what should have been a spirited season-opener atmosphere into something far more troubling.
Once the game started, the Tigers gave their supporters plenty to cheer about with a 51-10 rout of Clemson, piling up more than 600 yards while the defense held Clemson to 145. Still, the lopsided win did not erase the uneasy conversation that came out of the parking lots and tailgate spaces around the stadium, where the focus had already shifted from football to how quickly a festive scene can turn into a mess. [Read more 🡒]
LSUs SEC Fight Just Turned Into A Threat Tigers Cant Ignore
The SECs latest federal filing has pushed LSU into a spot no program wants to occupy, turning an eligibility fight into a full-blown conference threat. The league is now seeking legal authority to expel the Tigers over alleged violations of SEC rules that bar professional athletes from returning to college sports, and the update points directly to the ongoing effort to roster players the conference classifies as former pros.
At the center of the dispute are LSU players DaeQuan Wright and Zxavian Harris, whose eligibility has become the flashpoint as the conference continues to press its case. The filing also references a special league meeting in which potential termination was discussed, a sign that this is no longer just an administrative issue but a matter with real stakes for LSUs place in the SEC structure. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffins Leaked Clemson Speech Has LSU Fans Debating Everything
A video purporting to show LSU football coach Lane Kiffin delivering a profane halftime speech during the Tigers' game against Clemson has been making the rounds online, and it has quickly become the kind of clip that can dominate a fan base's group chats long after the final whistle. The footage has been met with a split reaction, with some viewers convinced it is authentic and others arguing it could be an imitation, which has only added to the noise around a team already under intense scrutiny.
A source familiar with Kiffin says the speech is real and may even have been leaked on purpose, a detail that has only deepened the debate over why it surfaced now and what it says about the situation behind the scenes. For LSU fans, the bigger issue is less the clip itself than the uncertainty around it, because the conversation has moved well beyond a viral video and into questions about trust, timing and who wanted this version of events to become public. [Read more 🡒]