The SEC has a familiar kind of problem this season: the conference is chasing another Heisman winner, and the list of names with a real shot is loaded with quarterbacks who can beat you in more than one way.
At the top of the board sits Trinidad Chambliss, the Ole Miss quarterback who turned a backup role and a Division II transfer label into a finish that got him 8th in the 2025 Heisman vote. Chambliss threw for 3,937 yards and 22 touchdowns while adding 537 rushing yards and 8 scores, then saved some of his sharpest work for the postseason.
In Ole Miss’s 3 CFP games, he piled up 921 passing yards and 6 total touchdowns. With Kewan Lacy back and a top 25 matchup waiting in Week 1, Chambliss is the SEC name most likely to dominate the Monday conversation.
He’s in an explosive offense, and with a full season ahead, his numbers could climb even higher than they did last year.
Right behind him is Arch Manning, who enters the year just behind Notre Dame’s C.J. Carr in the broader Heisman picture.
Manning opened last season as the preseason favorite, but Texas never fully got where it wanted to go, and his play was part of the issue. There were rough patches that stood out, including an 11-for-25, 114-yard outing against San Jose State in Game 3 and a 12-for-27, 132-yard performance against Kentucky.
Some of the throws were so off that they looked like a quarterback fighting the yips.
Still, the late-season version of Manning gave Texas plenty to hang onto. Once November arrived, he put up 11 touchdowns against just one interception, threw for 1,368 yards and completed 62% of his passes.
He also ran for 200 yards and 4 touchdowns during that stretch. When he’s rolling, the classic QB1 traits are still all there.
If that version carries into 2026 and Texas avoids another major stumble, Manning can absolutely climb back into the center of the race.
Gunner Stockton deserves more attention than he’s getting. The Georgia quarterback finished 7th in Heisman voting last season after spending 2 years on the bench, then putting together a steady, productive year: 2,894 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions.
He never threw more than one pick in a game, and he added 462 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Stockton also delivered in the biggest moments, accounting for 3 scores in Georgia’s SEC title win over Alabama and its CFP loss to Ole Miss.
With the No. 3 Bulldogs expected to keep winning, Stockton has a path to stay in the hunt if he can add a little more flash to the production.
John Mateer is another quarterback whose upside is obvious if the health and turnovers cooperate. He looked like a Heisman favorite when Oklahoma started 2025 with a 5-0 run, but injuries changed the story.
After that fast start, he finished with 8 touchdown passes and 8 interceptions, and his overall 14-to-11 TD/INT line won’t play in a Heisman push. Even so, the dual-threat ability remains a big part of the case: he ran for 431 yards and 8 touchdowns in that hot start, and also had 190 rushing yards and 5 scores.
If the No. 10 Sooners can keep him upright and he cleans up the giveaways, he can get back into the race quickly.
Marcel Reed rounds out the top five, and he’s not someone to overlook just because Texas A&M faded late. For most of 2025, Reed and the Aggies were quietly working their way into Heisman and CFP sleeper territory.
Then the final two games went sideways. Reed didn’t throw a touchdown pass in those games and was picked off four times, while A&M suffered its first two losses, one at Texas and one against Miami in the CFP.
Even with that finish, Reed’s overall season still carries real weight. The sophomore passed for 3,169 yards and 25 touchdowns and added 493 rushing yards and 6 scores.
The No. 8 Aggies should remain in the SEC mix, which won’t hurt his case, even if it isn’t a requirement.
Week 1 against Missouri State won’t tell us much, but Reed has already shown enough to stay on the radar.
Just outside the group, LaNorris Sellers probably won’t have a strong enough team around him at South Carolina. Sam Leavitt is headed into what the source described as the biggest mess of chaos in college football because of LSU’s situation. And Keelon Russell at Alabama needs to at least play a full game before he can really enter the conversation.
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