The Heisman race is getting crowded in all the right places, and the last weekend of September made that plain. This isn’t just a quarterback showcase anymore. A pass rusher, a running back and a pair of wideouts all forced their way into the conversation with performances that popped off the page.
Start with Colin Simmons, because what he did against Tennessee was the kind of game that changes the way people talk about a defender. The Texas EDGE racked up five sacks, forced a fumble and recovered one, helping him move into a tie for the national lead with seven sacks. He also stretched his sack streak to three straight games and set a career high with eight tackles in the win.
At quarterback, Keelon Russell may have delivered his sharpest outing yet. The Alabama sophomore put up career bests with five total touchdowns, four of them through the air, and 365 passing yards in a blowout over South Carolina. He now carries an 89.0 QBR, which ranks seventh nationally, into a matchup with fellow Heisman contender Kamario Taylor and Mississippi State.
C.J. Carr is starting to build some real momentum for Notre Dame in his second full season as the starter.
Against Purdue, the grandson of Lloyd Carr accounted for four scores - three passing and one rushing - while throwing for 237 yards in a lopsided win. The schedule has been fairly soft so far, but tougher tests are coming, starting with a home date against Bill Belichick and North Carolina.
Trinidad Chambliss took a loss at Florida, but the Ole Miss quarterback was hardly the problem in a game where the Rebels gave up 52 points. He still managed 342 total yards, including 298 through the air and 44 on the ground, plus three total touchdowns with one passing and two rushing. If he keeps carrying the load without Kewan Lacy, there’s still a path back into the race if Ole Miss gets back in the win column.
Malachi Toney keeps showing up every week for Miami, FL. He finished with six catches for 120 yards and a touchdown in the Hurricanes’ win over Central Michigan, and he has scored in all four games this season. Even so, he’s still not playing above the level of one of his Miami teammates.
That brings us to the other Miami standout, Darian Mensah, who has been making this look almost too easy since arriving from Duke. In Week 4, the junior quarterback carved up the Chippewas to help the Hurricanes improve to 4-0.
He completed 23 of 27 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns, giving him 14 on the year - tied with Taylor and Maiava for the national lead. He also sits first in the country in QBR at 93.9 and passer rating at 228.0.
Mensah’s numbers have been absurd, but the level of competition is about to rise. Miami hosts Clemson this Saturday, and that should tell us plenty about whether his accuracy keeps holding up.
Ohio State wide receiver Smith keeps making the case that he belongs in the top tier of this race. Against Illinois, the junior posted a career-high 12 receptions for 217 yards and matched a Buckeyes record with four receiving touchdowns.
He now leads the nation in receiving yards with 617 and is tied for the lead in touchdown catches with seven. The one blemish is the Week 2 loss to Texas, but if he keeps producing and Ohio State runs the table, he’ll be right in the thick of it in December.
Then there’s Kamario Taylor, who looks like the most electric freshman in the country. “Super Kamario” picked up his first career win in a ranked game against Missouri, and the arm talent keeps matching the hype.
He threw three touchdown passes and set a career high with 363 passing yards in the win. His 14 touchdowns are tied with Mensah and Maiava for the most in the nation, and he’s thrown only two interceptions.
Next up is a trip to Alabama, where the spotlight will only get brighter.
Florida’s offense is getting a huge boost from Jadan Baugh, and the junior running back has been a wrecking ball for defenses. He powered the Gators past the Rebels with 142 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Baugh now leads the nation with 11 rushing scores, has three games with three rushing touchdowns, and is averaging 7.2 yards per carry and 150 rushing yards per game through the season’s first month. Florida hasn’t looked like this in a long time, and Baugh is a big reason why.
And finally, there’s the man at the center of all this quarterback traffic, with the numbers that keep piling up. Maiava came off a tough loss to Oregon, but he wasn’t the reason USC fell short.
The junior scored three times, with two passing touchdowns and one rushing, and posted his second 300-yard game of 2026. He remains tied for the national lead in touchdown passes with 14 and leads the country with 1,499 passing yards.
He has played more games than anyone else, but the production is still the production. USC gets its next chance to build on that resume when it hosts Washington next week.
In Other News...
Florida Just Reached A Place Gators Fans Have Missed For Years
The AP Top 25 after Week 4 kept Texas right where it has been, still No. 1 with 62 first-place votes, as Georgia stayed at No. 2 and Notre Dame held No. 3. But one of the more notable shifts came a little farther down the list, where Florida climbed into the top 10 at No. 8, a spot the Gators had not occupied in five years.
For Texas, the ranking serves as another reminder that the margin for staying atop the poll is thin, with the usual heavy hitters still in close pursuit. Floridas return to that tier adds a bit more weight to the Longhorns path ahead, because every week now seems to bring another contender moving back into view. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Learned Something Important About Will Muschamps Defense In Knoxville
Texas left Knoxville with a 20-17 win built on defense, and it was the kind of performance that tells a coach a lot about his team early in the season. Tennessee never found a steady rhythm against the Longhorns, and the game turned into a field-position grind as Texas kept applying pressure and making the Vols work for every inch.
Will Muschamps unit was especially disruptive up front, and the pass rush never let Tennessee settle in. The Longhorns kept collapsing the pocket in waves, with multiple players getting involved and one standout turning in a night that will be remembered around Austin for a while, even if the full scale of it took until after the final whistle to really sink in. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Survived Tennessee Despite A Problem That Could Haunt Them
Texas came out of Knoxville with a win, but not much comfort. The Longhorns edged Tennessee 20-17 in a game that exposed the kind of offensive issues that can turn into a real problem later in the season, with Texas sputtering through stretches and getting tagged for 11 penalties and 115 yards. Even so, the defense kept the night from slipping away, harassing Tennessees freshman quarterback from start to finish and giving Texas a chance to survive a messy road test.
The pass rush was the difference, and it was relentless enough to tilt the entire game. Texas piled up 10 sacks, with Colin Simmons tying a school record by getting to the quarterback five times, a performance that masked plenty of offensive frustration elsewhere on the field. For a team still unbeaten, the bigger concern may be how much it had to lean on its defense to escape a game that stayed tense until the very end. [Read more 🡒]