Heisman Trophy leaders after Week 10 of college football

After a thoroughly riveting weekend of college football that included a key showdown for a handful of the Heisman Trophy front-runners, five On3 experts gather to give their weekly Heisman Trophy ballot following all the action.

Jayden Daniels was in action against Alabama, Michael Penix Jr. took on USC and Caleb Williams faced Washington.

How did those results, and the results of a handful of other games shake up the Heisman Trophy leaders following Week 10? Let’s dig in and discuss.

Matt Zenitz

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU
2. Bo Nix, Oregon
3. Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State

Daniels: It’s not Daniels’ fault that LSU’s defense has now given up more than 40 points in three separate games. In fact, if not for Daniels continuing to play like at a first-round draft pick type level, the Tigers could easily have five losses instead of three.

Nix: Nix is the only quarterback nationally with at least 30 total touchdowns and two or fewer interceptions.

Gordon: During Oklahoma State’s five-game winning streak, Gordon has accumulated an average of 231 scrimmage yards per game and scored 11 total touchdowns.

Jesse Simonton

1. JJ McCarthy, Michigan
2. Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State
3. Jayden Daniels, LSU

McCarthy: The Wolverines’ QB1 threw for a season-high 335 yards in a rout over Purdue. He’s still Top 5 nationally in completion percentage, yards per attempt and QB rating. It’s not his fault his team his ensconced in a potential scandal. The difference between Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State this season is the Wolverines have the best QB.

Harrison: The nation’s best pure football player was bottled up by Rutgers’ defense for three quarters, but he scored a pair of red zone touchdowns late to help the Buckeyes put away the Scarlett Knights. Harrison now has 10 receiving TDs on the season — tied for No. 2 nationally.

Daniels: It feels gross to penalize Daniels after he had over 300 total yards in the first half against Alabama, and once again tried to single-handedly will the Tigers to a victory. But even though the stats are eye-popping, LSU now has three losses and Daniels is hurt, with his availability against Florida this weekend in question.

Andy Staples

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU
2. Michael Penix Jr., Washington
3. Caleb Williams, USC

Daniels: Hopefully Daniels will be back soon. He was carrying LSU against Alabama before his injury, and he still looks like the best player in the country this season.

Penix: He continues to make tough throws look effortless, and the Huskies will need Penix to be great to get through the next two weeks against Utah and Oregon State.

Williams: Yeah, he’s still great. Unfortunately for Williams, he doesn’t also play defense.

Charles Power

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU
2. Michael Penix Jr., Washington
3. Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State

Jayden Daniels looked like the best player in the nation before going into concussion protocol in Saturday’s game against Alabama. We’ll see if he can get back in action, but Daniels is having the best season of any quarterback nationally, both statically and with the eye test.

Michael Penix Jr. and Washington continue to hack away on weekly basis. It hasn’t always been pretty, but Penix is making clutch plays and continues to lead the nation in passing, by a good margin. A few big tests remain with Utah and Oregon State looming.

Marvin Harrison Jr. came down with two impressive touchdowns on a jump ball and back shoulder route on Saturday. He continues to look like the top non-quarterback in college football and is the best player on the CFP committee’s No. 1 ranked team.

JD PicKell

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU
2. Bo Nix, Oregon
3. Michael Penix Jr., Washington

No. 1 I’ve still got Jayden Daniels. I know that he didn’t finish the game against Alabama, but just the way that he is still putting up stupid numbers, the way that he took over at multiple points during that game for LSU and kept them in it, I think with the way that he’s producing if he’s able to get back and if they’re able to finish strong, I think there’s a very real case for him to still win the Heisman Trophy kind of like Caleb Williams did last year without being on a winning team. Twenty-seven touchdown passes and he’s ran for six more on the ground. So 33 total touchdowns, only four interceptions. Dude is balling.

I have Bo Nix at two just by the nature of the way that Oregon’s operating offensively, he accounted for six touchdowns on his own. Just stupid in every sense. So the way that he’s got that offense rolling and the way that he is running that system and the numbers he’s putting up with how efficient he’s been. I mean he’s 78% completion on the year, that’s ridiculous. I’ve seen no let-down from him, whereas Michael Penix Jr. putting up tremendous numbers still but he’s had a couple games where he’s been missing.

I have Michael Penix Jr. at three, still incredible numbers and you can’t argue with that production, but I still put Bo Nix ahead of him at No. 2. I would say this, the Heisman moment for Bo Nix is there with the way they made a definitive statement against Utah. I think when they run it back, Washington and Oregon, if we get there, I think they’ll get the better of them. So that’s a lot of projecting but right now Bo Nix and his consistency is why I put him ahead of Michael Penix at two and three.

There you have it, six players landed on our five On3 national experts’ three-person Heisman Trophy ballots this weekend, with Daniels holding onto his grip as one of the top vote-getters despite getting knocked out of the game against Alabama on Saturday night. Can Daniels get healthy in enough time to keep the momentum going down the home stretch, or will his absence open the door for others to burst through? Stay tuned next week as we find out.