Miami’s Malachi Toney didn’t just climb the Heisman board in Week 9 - he blew the thing open. After a record-setting night against Pitt, the Hurricanes wideout surged into the top three of the 2026 odds and suddenly sits right behind Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.
Toney’s line moved fast, from +2700 to +345, after he shredded Pitt for 16 catches, 194 yards and three touchdowns. That performance gave Miami the second and third spots in the market, with quarterback Carson Mensah right alongside him.
Smith remains the favorite at +124, but he took a hit despite Ohio State being idle. His number slipped from -120, and the Buckeyes now head into a stretch that could define his candidacy even more than his current stats.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Tuesday that quarterback Julian Sayin is out indefinitely with an injury to his throwing arm, and the Buckeyes are planning to play without him through the postseason. That leaves true freshman Luke Fahey as the leading candidate to start at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, though five-star sophomore Tavien St. Clair also worked with the first team during the bye.
Fahey has completed 9 of 13 passes for 203 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions this season.
“We’re going to play the guy that gives us the best chance to win,” Day said.
Smith’s production through seven games is already huge: 52 receptions, 984 yards and 12 touchdowns. But the quarterback situation changes the way voters will read the résumé, and Smith was direct about that.
“It’s going to take time to build that,” Smith said. “I ain’t going to say it’s going to take one day. It’s not that easy.”
The Buckeyes wideout now goes into a prime-time road game at USC and then a Nov. 7 home matchup with Oregon with an inexperienced passer throwing to him. If he keeps putting up big numbers in those spots, that’s where his case can separate from the Miami receivers - because people will see him doing it without Sayin’s accuracy helping the cause.
Mensah, meanwhile, barely budged from +300 after one of his cleanest outings of the season. Miami converted 10 of its first 12 third downs and scored on seven of its first eight possessions in a 52-23 win over Pitt, all while the Hurricanes were making their first appearance atop the AP poll since 2002.
The Duke transfer has completed 81.4% of his passes for 2,151 yards with 22 touchdowns and one interception. But Toney’s surge is the reason Mensah didn’t create more distance in the market. Every time the quarterback keeps feeding his star receiver, the Heisman attention inside Miami’s offense gets split more evenly.
“A really good conference win,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “Solid play.”
Miami is 7-0 and heads to North Carolina before a Nov. 7 trip to Notre Dame. Toney’s current numbers are doing plenty of the heavy lifting in the race: 66 catches, 952 yards and 11 touchdowns through seven games.
His breakout against Pitt was the kind of game that changes the conversation by itself. Toney broke Miami’s single-game receptions record, topping the previous mark of 13 set by Mike Harley against Duke in 2021 and matched by Toney against Pitt last season. By halftime, he already had 12 grabs for 159 yards and two touchdowns, matching Pitt’s total offense through two quarters.
That came after he asked out of the game in the second quarter with an apparent injury. Pitt scored while he was off the field to trim the lead to 17-7, then Toney came back in and kept tormenting the Panthers.
Pitt defensive back Raion Strader said before the game, “Real dynamic player, but I think we have a great scheme for him.”
Now Toney and Mensah are essentially sharing the front of Miami’s Heisman push, with the Nov. 7 trip to Notre Dame looking like the likeliest stage for voters to sort them out.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr also took a step back. He slid from +1500 after the Irish were idle following a 28-24 loss at BYU. The Big 12 later acknowledged a clock error that cost Notre Dame a final play in Provo, but the loss remains part of Carr’s record.
Carr has completed 129 of 193 passes for 1,639 yards with 16 touchdowns and one interception, along with three rushing scores. His toughest performance came at BYU, when he went 27-of-49 for 261 yards and no touchdowns. BYU’s 39-31 double-overtime loss at unranked UCF on Saturday only made that result look rougher.
The Saline, Mich., native gets his best chance to climb on Nov. 7, when 6-1 Notre Dame hosts Miami and both Mensah and Toney are on the other sideline.
Ole Miss quarterback Austin Chambliss suffered the steepest tumble among the top names after a wild loss at Texas. He dropped from +650 to the next tier after the Rebels fell 34-27, and his night came with plenty of damage on the stat sheet: 25-of-52 passing for 250 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Ole Miss trailed 24-3 at halftime after two first-half picks, including a fourth-down throw from the Texas 2 that Rasheem Biles intercepted at the goal line. It was the first multi-interception game of Chambliss’ Rebel career.
The Rebels still stormed back with 21 unanswered points, and Chambliss tied the game at 24-24 with a 27-yard touchdown to Horatio Fields early in the fourth quarter. Ole Miss recovered an onside kick late, but Jelani McDonald picked off Chambliss in the end zone to end it.
“I played terrible tonight,” Chambliss said. “I feel like I let my team down tonight, and it’s the worst feeling ever.”
Pete Golding still praised his quarterback, saying Chambliss “competed his butt off.” Greg McElroy had leaned toward Ole Miss because of Chambliss’ red zone work, but the end-zone interception wiped out that edge at exactly the wrong time.
The Rebels are 5-2 and host Auburn and Georgia before traveling to Oklahoma. “Now we’ve got to win out,” Chambliss said.
Elsewhere on the board, Oregon State wide receiver Jesse Legree slipped from +2000 to +2800 during a bye. Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell moved into the top 10 after throwing for 311 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-20 win over Texas A&M, and LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt joined the group after accounting for four touchdowns in a 38-17 win at Auburn. BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier and Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover fell out of the top 10.
- WR Jesse Legree, Oregon State (+2800)
- QB Gunner Stockton, Georgia (+5000)
- QB Drew Mestemaker, Oklahoma State (+5000)
- QB Keelon Russell, Alabama (+8000)
- QB Sam Leavitt, LSU (+8800)
In Other News...
BYU Faces A Complicated Ranking Drop After Costly Upset
Miami had no trouble staying put at No. 1 in the AP college football rankings after handling Pittsburgh, with quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Malachi Toney again helping set the tone. The Hurricanes keep looking like the standard at the top, while the rest of the national picture got a shakeup behind them.
BYUs double-overtime loss to unranked UCF is expected to send the Cougars tumbling after they entered the weekend at No. 2, and Ohio State appears poised to move up into the No. 2 spot. What happens after that is less clear, with Notre Dame, Indiana and Georgia all in the mix for the top six and the final order depending on how pollsters weigh a messy weekend around the country. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Faces One Growing CFP Problem Despite Holding No 1
Miami held onto the No. 1 spot in the latest AP Top 25, collecting 59 first-place votes and keeping its place atop the sport as the College Football Playoff picture continues to sharpen. Ohio State moved up to No. 2 after overtaking BYU, while Texas made the weeks biggest climb among the contenders after its win over Ole Miss. Elsewhere in the poll, USC and Iowa fell out after losses, and Oklahoma State and Wisconsin moved into the rankings.
For Miami, the ranking is a reminder that being first is only part of the equation at this stage of the season. The Hurricanes are still in position to control their own path, but every shift around them matters as the field tightens and the margin for error shrinks. With Ohio State surging and Texas now pushing upward, Miamis hold on the top line may be secure for the moment, but the broader CFP pressure is only getting heavier. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Just Raised The Stakes For Everyone Chasing Them
Week 8 turned into a shakeup weekend across college football, and Miami came out of it with even more momentum than it had going in. The Hurricanes rolled past Pittsburgh to improve to 7-0, then moved to No. 1 in the AP poll as several teams ahead of them stumbled around the country, from BYU and Texas Tech to Iowa.
For Miami, the ranking is only part of the story. The bigger takeaway is how quickly the chase group is thinning out, with Indiana and Alabama escaping their own scares while others fell outright, and that kind of chaos tends to sharpen the spotlight on a program that has suddenly made itself the standard everyone else is trying to catch. [Read more 🡒]