The Latest Heisman Buzz As Fall Begins
As a weekly reminder, college football fans can now vote on a daily basis at hopefuls.heisman.com and have their vote count at the end of the season. The fan vote uses a season-long weighted model, developed in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Center, that gives greater weight to votes cast later in the year as the body of work grows and conference races intensify.
With all of the excitement and fervor of Steve Martin’s character in The Jerk when the new phonebook arrived, we welcome with open arms the first day of Fall.
Football hits different in Fall. The weather and the leaves get as crisp as cold tailgate beers. As the temps gradually cool, the intensity of the games rise.
Saturday night in Oxford, not withstanding. Because the LSU-Ole Miss / Kiffin-Rebel reunion tilt three days ago went to 11 and was as college football as college football gets.
The eighth-place finisher in the 2025 Heisman balloting, quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, put an early claim on 2026 trophy consideration with a huge game against his old coach, leading Mississippi to a 32-24 win over the Tigers.
Chambliss completed 33-of-48 passes for 363 yards and two touchdowns and also ran one in. He is sixth nationally in passing yards per game (308) while completing 70% of his throws with nine TDs (including two rushing) and two interceptions.
ESPN gave Chambliss its “Heisman of Week 3” nod, noting “Chambliss was indeed the difference-maker in Ole Miss’ cathartic Saturday night revenge win … Amid a sea of great quarterback performances throughout the country, he was your Week 3 Heisman winner.”
Alabama’s Keelon Russell was ESPN’s Heisman runner-up for the week following his 23-of-30 passing performance for 320 yards and three scores. He also rushed for 56 yards and a score as he led the Crimson Tide back from a slow start and a small deficit in what became a 50-36 win over Florida State.
After limited action in 2025 as a true freshman, Russell has Alabama at 3-0 with wins over the Seminoles and Kentucky . Next, however, comes games against ranked teams in five of the next six weeks, which will give Russell a chance to put some oomph behind a freshman Heisman campaign.
Former Duke QB-turned-Miami signal caller Darian Mensah returned to North Carolina over the weekend, though not Durham. He led the Hurricanes into Winston-Salem to take on Wake Forest and came out with a 33-20 win and another host of accolades.
Mensah broke ACC records for completions to start a game (24) and completions over multiple games (35) and finished his effort against the Demon Deacons with a 30-of-34 passing day for 220 yards and three scores. If they handed out pieces of the Heisman per percentage of the season completed, Mensah might already have the trophy’s throwing arm.
He leads the country in completion percentage (89.9), having missed on only eight of 79 attempts, with 11 TDs without an interception. He is a mere third in QB rating (228.65) behind fellow unbeaten QBs, Gunner Stockton of Georgia (259.27) and Josh Hoover of Indiana (244.15), despite having less incompletions and more yards than both. We need to go back school to understand why.
Be that as it may, Mensah is third in the Week 3 On3 Heisman Poll behind Chambliss and Mississippi State QB Kamario Taylor. Mensah is one spot ahead of teammate wide receiver Malachi Toney in the poll while Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith is fifth and Florida running back Jadan Baugh is sixth..
USC QB Jayden Maiava is seventh and Mensah’s former Duke teammate, running back Nate Sheppard, is eighth. Stockton is ninth and Texas QB Arch Manning is 10th.
The Bulldogs’ Taylor has 832 passing yards and 178 rushing yards, throwing for 11 TDs and running for for a 12th and has led Mississippi State to back-to-back road wins over Minnesota and South Carolina.
Bleacher Report’s latest Heisman Poll, released today, has Chambliss first with the Canes’ Mensah and Toney 2-3. Toney caught 12 passes for 114 yards and a score and now has 28 grabs for 444 yards and five TDs, all among the top five nationally.
Taylor is fourth in the poll while Smith is fifth. Smith, with 2025 Heisman finalist Julian Sayin under center, became OSU’s all-time receiving yardage leader on Saturday and has 21 catches for 400 yards and three scores in the young season.
USC’s Maiava and Georgia’s Stockton are leading unbeaten blue bloods who have yet to be truly tested, or tested by a team you would expect to test them.
While Stockton leads the country in QB rating, Maiava leads the nation with 12 TD passes and is sixth in rating (194.03) and seventh in completion percentage (75.7). Maiava and his Trojans get their first true test this weekend against Oregon.
Similarly, Indiana and its new QB and former TCU gunslinger Hoover get their first test — albeit an unranked one — against Northwestern. Hoover has seamlessly stepped into the cleats of 2025 Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza so far, but the competition will get more challenging.
On the RB front, Sheppard leads all backs with a yards-per-game average of 176.00 with five TDs. Baugh is second nationally, averaging 152.67 yards with eight scores.
The leader nationally in passing yards per game (373.3) is Oregon State’s Braden Atkinson, who led the Beavers to their first win Saturday over Montana. He has already thrown for 1,120 yards and eight scores — which includes games against two ranked teams — and has rushed for two scores.
We’ll close things outs with our own Robert Griffin II’s latest Heisman Top 5 front runners, led by Taylor and followed by Chambliss, Mensah, Toney and Sheppard.
It’s Sept. 22 and we have one toe dipped into the official Fall season while sipping our first pumpkin spiced latte. But there are dozens and dozens of players with early claims on Heisman attention, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
