Travis Hunter? Ashton Jeanty? Cam Ward? Votes are in for ESPN’s midseason Heisman Watch
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Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer
On this date last year, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. looked like the Heisman Trophy front-runner after defeating Oregon. In 2022, Hendon Hooker held the lead at midseason following Tennessee’s upset of Alabama. The year before, Kenneth Walker III and Matt Corral were surging.
None of those players ended up taking home the hardware. The Heisman race is a marathon, not a sprint, and a tricky one to forecast early in the season.
Here’s how ESPN writers voted on their top Heisman candidates at midseason. In this round of voting, 11 different players received votes.
To arrive at the final rankings, 14 voters were asked to vote for their top five. First-place votes earned five points with four points assigned for second-place votes, three points for third-place votes, two points for fourth-place votes and one point for fifth-place votes.
Total points: 66 (first-place votes: 11)
In college football, few individual records have seemed more unbreakable than Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record. The Oklahoma State superstar rewrote the record books and secured the Heisman in 1988 with a jaw-dropping 2,850 rushing yards and 44 touchdowns.
Six games in, Jeanty is well on his way to breaking it. Boise State’s unstoppable star has gained 1,248 rushing yards and scored 18 total touchdowns while averaging an absurd 9.9 yards per carry. Sanders had 1,156 rushing yards and 19 TDs on 7.5 yards per carry through his first six games in 1988.
Jeanty is the most explosive playmaker in the sport, with eight touchdown runs of 50 or more yards. Defenses spend all week scheming to stuff the box and slow him, but Jeanty leads all FBS backs in broken tackles. He has done all this despite sitting out the second half of two blowout wins for the No. 15 Broncos as they chase another Mountain West title and a College Football Playoff bid.
A running back from a non-power conference hasn’t been invited to New York as a Heisman finalist since TCU’s LaDanian Tomlinson in 2000. Jeanty is leaving little doubt he’ll be there in December.
Heisman moment: Nobody has figured out a good way to shut down Jeanty, and that includes the now-No. 2 ranked Oregon Ducks. Jeanty rushed for 192 yards and three touchdowns in Eugene on Sept. 7 and legitimately put Oregon on upset alert in a 37-34 thriller. Jeanty broke a 70-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to tie the score, then punched in his third score of the night with 10 minutes left to put the Broncos ahead 34-27. The Ducks rallied late and won on a game-winning field goal with time expiring, but Jeanty earned a lot more believers that night.
Key stat: Jeanty has gained 841 rushing yards after first contact, according to TruMedia. That’s 355 yards more than any other running back in FBS. Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson ranks second with 586. How extreme is that number through six games? In 2023, only eight FBS running backs finished the season with 850 or more rushing yards after contact. Jeanty was one of them, ranking fourth nationally with 934.
ESPN BET Heisman odds: +175
Total points: 52 (first-place votes: 3)
Nobody else in college football can do what Hunter does. Colorado’s two-way star and future first-round pick got off to a dominant start in the Buffaloes’ first season back in the Big 12, leading the conference in catches with 49 for 587 yards and six touchdowns. He opened the season with four consecutive 100-yard performances at receiver, but his play at cornerback has been just as impressive. Hunter has yet to allow a touchdown pass and has recorded three pass breakups and two interceptions.
Hunter suffered a shoulder injury on Saturday night against Kansas State and had to miss the second half of the Buffaloes’ 31-28 loss. After the game, coach Deion Sanders didn’t offer an update on the severity of the injury nor a timetable for Hunter’s return. Let’s hope it’s just a minor setback for the most dynamic player in the game.
Heisman moment: Hunter struck the Heisman pose after diving for an interception against UCF, one of several highlight plays he made in a 48-21 blowout road win on Sept. 28. Hunter also hauled in nine catches for 89 yards and a touchdown against the Knights.
Key stat: Prior to his injury, Hunter had been on the field for 92% of Colorado’s plays on offense and defense. He has totaled 322 snaps on offense and 341 on defense, according to TruMedia. No other FBS player has played more than 500 snaps this season.
ESPN BET Heisman odds: +1100
Total points: 43
Six games in, Ward is truly exceeding Miami fans’ wildest expectations. The Washington State transfer took over a team that went 7-6 in 2023 and turned it into the undefeated front-runner to win the ACC.
The 6-foot-2, 223-pound senior has always possessed elite arm talent but he has taken his game to another level this fall with 2,219 passing yards (second-most in FBS), 23 total touchdowns and five interceptions while operating the No. 1 scoring offense in the country.
Ward dominated Florida in his debut, has pulled off dramatic comeback wins over Virginia Tech and Cal and has created real CFP expectations for the Hurricanes as they’ve risen to No. 6 in the AP poll. After two seasons at the FCS level at Incarnate Word and two at Washington State, Ward came close to entering the NFL draft but had a late change of heart. He wanted to come back to school for one final season, win big and prove he’s a first-round talent. So far, so good.
Heisman moment: If you stayed up late enough to watch it, you witnessed greatness from Ward during Miami’s resilient 39-38 comeback win at Cal on Oct. 5. Ward faced a 25-point deficit midway through the third quarter but just kept playing. He threw for 437 yards and expertly led four consecutive touchdown drives, connecting with tight end Elijah Arroyo for the game-winning score with 26 seconds left.
Key stat: Ward is averaging 12.2 yards per attempt on third downs according to TruMedia, best among all FBS starting quarterbacks. The Hurricanes are No. 1 nationally in third-down conversions (60.3%) thanks to their veteran QB. Ward has played 64 snaps on third downs and has accounted for 559 total yards and seven touchdowns.
ESPN BET Heisman odds: +600
Total points: 32
The Ducks sought a veteran quarterback with big-game experience to succeed Bo Nix as they aimed to take their next big step as a program in Year 3 under Dan Lanning. They were right to bet on Gabriel, a 49-game starter at Oklahoma and UCF who is predictably proving to be a terrific fit as a leader and playmaker.
Gabriel made the move to Eugene knowing his final college season would be defined by how he performed in high-pressure situations on a squad with national championship ambitions. He aced his toughest test yet with incredible poise Saturday night, putting up 373 total yards with three touchdowns and no turnovers in the Ducks’ 32-31 upset of No. 2 Ohio State, the program’s second-ever win over an AP top-2 opponent.
Six games in, Gabriel has accounted for 1,893 total yards with 17 touchdowns and three interceptions while completing a career-high 76% of his passes. A 12-0 run through Oregon’s regular-season schedule looks entirely possible now, which would certainly keep Gabriel in the Heisman race the rest of the way.
Heisman moment: Gabriel’s performance against Ohio State was arguably the best of his career. He beat one of the top defenses in the country again and again with remarkable accuracy on downfield shots, going 6-of-7 for 220 yards with a touchdown and no turnovers on throws of 15-plus yards against the Buckeyes.
Key stat: Gabriel needs only 2,563 more passing yards and 18 more passing touchdowns to surpass Houston’s Case Keenum as the NCAA all-time leading passer.
ESPN BET Heisman odds: +375
Total points: 4
Finding a new starting quarterback in the transfer portal was high on coach Curt Cignetti’s to-do list upon taking the Indiana job. He found a proven winner to build around in Rourke, a 33-game starter at Ohio who’d thrown for more than 7,500 yards and earned MAC Offensive Player of the Year in 2022. And together, they just keep winning.
The sixth-year senior has been superb during the Hoosiers’ stunning 6-0 start and rise to No. 16 in the AP poll, passing for 1,752 yards with 16 total touchdowns and two interceptions on a Big Ten-best 11 yards per attempt. Rourke has put up a 91.9 QBR — best among Power 4 starters — while masterfully operating a rebuilt offense that’s scoring 47.5 points per game. His experience and efficiency have injected a ton of confidence into a team that went 3-9 a year ago.
Heisman moment: Indiana has yet to trail in any game, so Rourke hasn’t faced too many pressure moments. With Nebraska up next and games against Michigan and Ohio State on their November schedule, those opportunities are coming soon. When Northwestern did make it a 3-point game against the Hoosiers early in the fourth quarter, Rourke shut down the Wildcats’ upset bid with consecutive touchdown drives, finishing with 380 passing yards and three TDs in a 41-24 win.
Key stat: Indiana has outscored its six opponents by a combined margin of 196 points. Only Texas (221 points) and Ole Miss (216) have been better by that standard. In their nine losses last season, the Hoosiers were outscored by a combined margin of 135 points.
ESPN BET Heisman odds: +6000
Also receiving votes: Army QB Bryson Daily (3 points), Alabama WR Ryan Williams (3), Navy QB Blake Horvath (2), Alabama QB Jalen Milroe (2), Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith (2), Pitt RB Desmond Reid (1)
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.
The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.
Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.
“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”
Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.
The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.
“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.
For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.
Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.
“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.
The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.
The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.
“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”
This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.
“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.
“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees, digging for options to bolster their infield, have signed third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the affiliate announced Saturday.
Candelario, 31, was released by the Cincinnati Reds on June 23, halfway through a three-year, $45 million contract he signed before the start of last season. The decision was made after Candelario posted a .707 OPS in 2024 and batted .113 with a .410 OPS in 22 games for the Reds before going on the injured list in April with a back injury.
The performance was poor enough for Cincinnati to cut him in a move that Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall described as a sunk cost.
For the Yankees, signing Candelario is a low-cost flier on a player who recorded an .807 OPS just two seasons ago as they seek to find a third baseman to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base, his natural position.
Candelario is the second veteran infielder the Yankees have signed to a minor league contract in the past three days; they agreed to terms with Nicky Lopez on Thursday.
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