Every Monday we take an updated look at the Heisman Trophy race, with our Heisman Trophy stock watch.
The goal of this article isn't just to list the favorites, but to share some guys who may be moving up the charts after a big Saturday in the sport.
Before we get to this week's risers, here is the current top of the betting market - with odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook:
Caleb Williams, QB, USC (+180)
Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington (+380)
Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas (+900)
Bo Nix, QB, Oregon (+900)
Jordan Travis, QB, Florida State (+1500)
Stock Up:
Caleb Williams (+180): Caleb Williams' Heisman stock is somehow on the rise, despite entering last week as the co-favorite and being the reinging winner. He carved up the Colorado pass defense for 403 passing yards, six passing touchdowns, one interception, and he had a 75% completion percentage. The ball was also spread around a lot with 10 different Trojans catching a pass.
More important than just the stats though, for the second week in a row - and in what has become a trend throughout his career - USC needed Williams to be great, as the Trojans defense gave up 563 yards and 41 points.
Williams stats this season are just stupid, with 1,603 passing yards, 21 passing touchdowns, one interception, and a 74.5% completion percentage through five games. And they may need to stay great every single game for the Trojans to have a chance to win the Pac-12.
Jayden Daniels (+2500): Jayden Daniels and LSU lost this weekend in a shootout against Ole Miss on the road. Even if in a loss, Daniels has staked his claim as the best quarterback in the SEC, and it might not be that close this season. Despite LSU already having two losses, Daniels has been great, and like Williams, it’s been the defense that’s let the Tigers down up to this point.
In the game on Saturday, Daniels had 414 passing yards, four passing touchdowns, zero interceptions, and he has a 75% completion percentage. Seven different receivers for LSU caught passes, with Brian Thomas Jr. and Malik Nabers leading the way with each having over 100 yards receiving and Thomas also caught three of Daniels’ four touchdown passes. Kyren Lacy caught the other one.
Daniels was far from the problem on Saturday night and he’s going to stay in the Heisman conversation all season because of how much he needs to do to help LSU win. The Tigers travel to Missouri where Daniels will geta chance to improve these numbers even more.
Brock Bowers (+6000): Brock Bowers might be the fastest riser this week and if he can continue what he did this past Saturday, he’ll at least get an invite to New York. Bowers had eight receptions, 157 receiving yards, and one receiving touchdown against Auburn on Saturday, as the Dawgs repeatedly went to him down the stretch when they needed big plays.
This was after he had nine receptions, 121 receiving yards, and two receiving touchdowns. He also has 30 receptions, 413 receiving yards, and three receiving touchdowns. He’s the best player on Georgia and they seem to have found out their best chance of winning every week is by feeding him the ball.
Just how good was Bowers? He had Auburn's own defensive coordinator defending himself on Twitter after the game.
Stock Down:
Michael Penix Jr. (+380): Penix honestly didn’t do anything detrimental to his chances on Saturday and Washington still won the game against Arizona as well, 31-24. However, the issue is that there was a lot of other performances that stood out more on Saturday. Penix also had probably his worst performance of the year up to this point with zero touchdown passes, which is unheard of from him and this Washington offense. He still threw for 363 passing yards and had a 75% completion percentage. It just wasn’t an amazing game from Penix and that’s a fault of the Washington offense’s dominance that when Penix still throws for over 350 yards it’s seen as not the best outing from him. No receivers even hit over 100 yards receiving, with Germie Bernard getting the closest at 98 receiving yards.
There’s a lot of credit that needs to go to Arizona in this game because they weren’t fazed by the Washington offense, and it will be interesting to see how Penix does moving forward. \
The Huskies are on bye next week, but they play the Oregon Ducks in a massive rivalry game in two weeks, so Penix will get a huge stage to see what he can do against a very good team.
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