The Heisman race is starting to look like a Miami showcase.
With the regular season winding down, Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Malachi Toney have climbed to the top of the latest DraftKings Sportsbook odds, putting both Miami stars in position for a rare piece of college football history. Mensah is listed at +156, while Toney sits at +305, and no other player is close enough to make this feel like anything but a two-man race from South Florida.
No. 1 Miami improved to 8-0 with a narrow win over Bill Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday, Oct. 31, and the Hurricanes’ offense keeps supplying the kind of numbers that turn heads in Heisman voting. Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith is the only other player near the top tier at +290, while Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr are well behind the Miami pair.
The schedule still has some work left in it, too. Miami has four regular-season games remaining, along with a likely ACC Championship Game appearance before the College Football Playoff. One of the biggest tests ahead comes in Week 10 against Notre Dame, the same Fighting Irish team that was controversially left out of last season’s CFP while the Hurricanes earned the final spot after beating Notre Dame in the season opener.
What makes this run even more striking is the company Mensah and Toney could join. ESPN Insights pointed out that if the two Miami standouts finish 1-2 in Heisman voting, they would become only the second teammates ever to do it. The last time it happened was in 1945, when Army’s Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis pulled off the feat.
Miami’s bigger goal is still the one that matters most: a national championship, especially after last season’s dramatic loss to Indiana. But with Mensah and Toney both surging in the Heisman race, the Hurricanes have two stars who are putting themselves in position to make history while the playoff picture takes shape.
In Other News...
Ohio State Just Created A Ranking Debate Fans Wont Ignore
USCs rise and fall in the AP Top 25 has already made for one of the more interesting early-season twists, but the latest shakeup has only added to the conversation around where the Irish fit in the national picture. The Trojans slipped out of the poll after losing to Wisconsin, then turned around and stunned No. 2 Ohio State at home, a result that immediately complicated how voters view both teams and the teams around them.
Ohio States offense never looked settled without its starting quarterback, and the Buckeyes slide in the rankings reflected how much that absence mattered. With several other ranked teams also winning or losing, the poll saw plenty of movement, leaving Notre Dame fans with a fresh reminder that the margin between a top-tier spot and a drop can change quickly when the results start stacking up. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Just Got A New Playoff Debate Fueling Fans
Notre Dames place in the national conversation got a fresh jolt after Week 9, when ESPNs Football Power Index was updated and pushed the Irish to No. 1. The predictive model, which uses simulations and team strength to forecast the rest of the season, flipped the order at the top and sent Ohio State down to No. 2, giving Notre Dame fans another data point to point to as the playoff debate starts to sharpen.
The rest of the updated top five includes Miami, Georgia and LSU, but the Irish are the ones now sitting at the center of the discussion. FPI is only one measure, of course, and it is built to project what comes next rather than reward what has already happened, but any time Notre Dame lands at the top of a national ranking, it adds another layer to the case being made for where the season could go from here. [Read more 🡒]
Jerome Bettis Jr. Just Made Notre Dames WR Pecking Order Interesting
Jerome Bettis Jr. gave Notre Dame another useful wrinkle in the passing game against Navy, turning in the most productive outing of his career with six catches for 78 yards and his first touchdown. It was the kind of performance that tends to change how a receiver is viewed in the rotation, especially for a team still sorting out where the targets are going and who can be trusted when the ball comes their way.
Marcus Freeman and CJ Carr both singled out Bettis for the steady way he has handled his chances, and that matters in a receiver room where opportunities can shift quickly. His expanded role has become one of the more interesting developments for the Irish, not just because of the numbers from one game, but because he looks like a player who can keep forcing his way into the conversation. [Read more 🡒]