Heisman Trophy leaders after Week 4 of college football

The Heisman Trophy race remains ongoing, with the ebbs and flows of the season providing some more shakeups in the On3 Heisman Trophy balloting following Week 4. Two of the players who made ballots last week suffered losses.

That alone provided some significant movement in the rankings, with Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders disappearing from ballots after a lopsided loss to Oregon and Notre Dame‘s Sam Hartman dropping out after a heart-breaking loss to Ohio State.

In any case, let’s turn it over to the On3 national experts to get their takes on the Heisman Trophy race at this point. We get each of our national experts to provide their current Heisman Trophy vote below.

Matt Zenitz

1. Caleb Williams, USC
2. Michael Penix Jr., Washington
3. Cam Ward, Washington State

Williams: USC’s 42-28 win over Arizona State was Williams’ fourth straight game to start the year with at least four total touchdowns and his second game already with five touchdowns. Through four games, he has 18 total touchdowns (15 passing, three rushing) and no interceptions.

Penix: For the first time this year, Penix didn’t reach 400 passing yards. Still, he helped Washington post 59 points in a win over Cal with four touchdown passes within the game’s first 33 minutes.

Ward: Ward has now guided Washington State to two top-20 wins in the last three weeks. During a 38-35 victory over No. 14 Oregon State, Ward was 28-of-34 for 404 yards and accounted for all five Wazzu touchdowns. Through four games, Ward has the Cougars 4-0 and has 1,390 passing yards, 109 rushing yards, 16 total touchdowns and no interceptions.

Jesse Simonton

1. Michael Penix Jr., Washington
2. Caleb Williams, USC
3. Jordan Travis, Florida State

Penix: He failed to throw for 400 yards and had a pick on Saturday night. PENALIZE HIM! Na. Penix still tossed four more touchdowns and leads the nation in passing, yards per attempt (11.9) and touchdowns (16) for the nation’s most explosive offense.

Williams: USC’s quarterback continues to nip at Penix’s heels in the Heisman Trophy race with his own weekly heroics. Kids would be hard-pressed to replicate his numbers in Madden — 18 total touchdowns, zero turnovers and 74% completion. The reigning Heisman winner should light up Colorado and Arizona before a tougher test against Notre Dame’s defense.

Travis: The raw numbers aren’t as impressive as many other QBs in the country (just 61% completion, 8.5 yards per attempt), but Travis has gutted out a couple injuries to lead the Seminoles to two of the better wins this season against LSU and Clemson. He overcame a sluggish start Saturday with three total touchdowns, including the game-winner in OT.

Andy Staples

1. Caleb Williams, USC
2. Drake Maye, North Carolina
3. Michael Penix Jr., Washington

It’s not Williams’ fault that the Trojans’ defense struggled at times with Arizona State. He was once again ridiculously efficient, and he accounted for five TDs.

Maye doesn’t make everything look quite as effortless as Williams, but it’s close. Against Pittsburgh, he averaged about 10 yards a throw and added two rushing TDs to one passing TD.

Penix just keeps putting up video game numbers. Yes, he has better receivers than most QBs. But Penix throwing such a beautiful, catchable ball makes those receivers even better.

Charles Power

1. Caleb Williams, USC
2. Michael Penix, Jr., Washington
3. Cameron Ward, Washington State

Caleb Williams continues to play at a higher level than every other quarterback through four games. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner had another big game on Saturday accounting for five touchdowns (3 passing and 2 rushing) in USC’s 42-28 win at Arizona State. He’s continued to improve from playing within the structure of Lincoln Riley’s offense and made some highly translatable throws from the pocket on Saturday night. Williams still leads the nation in passing efficiency by a wide margin. He’s the top talent at the position in college football and is continuing to improve, which is a scary proposition for the Trojans’ opponents.

Michael Penix Jr. is at the controls of the nation’s most potent passing attack to this point. He’s doing a great job distributing passes to one of the nation’s top receiving corps of Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja’Lynn Polk. Penix is passing for both volume and efficiency. He leads the nation in passing at 409 yards per game and is tied with Williams for the highest yards per attempt at 11.9. The fifth year senior is highly comfortable in Kalen Deboer’s offense and has a very strong rapport with his talented receivers. Penix and Washington have made it look very easy thus far.

The level of quarterback play in the Pac-12 is bordering on ridiculous to this point in the season. Cam Ward and Bo Nix are leading their units to great success early on, but I give Ward the nod for the third spot in the Heisman Trophy race at the moment. The Incarnate Word transfer had a monster game in Wazzu’s 38-35 win over No. 14 Oregon State, going 28-of-34 for 404 yards and 4 touchdowns along with a rushing score. Ward made a number of impressive downfield throws along with a few nice improvisational plays. He’s playing a high level in new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle’s offense and has helped Washington State become one of the more interesting stories early on this season.

J.D. PicKell

1. Caleb Williams, USC
2. Jordan Travis, Florida State
3. Michael Penix Jr. Washington

Caleb Williams No. 1, accounted for five touchdowns, three through the air, two on the ground. Team didn’t look amazing but they will go as he goes. I was impressed by him yet again. Stuffs the stat sheet. I think it’s extremely difficult to make a case against him being the No. 1 guy.

Two, I’ve got Jordan Travis. So much of the Heisman is built on your stages, and so far Florida State has two of the best wins in the country. He’s played great in both those games. He was gritty yesterday. In terms of a Heisman moment if you can have that in Week 4, saw him stand and deliver yesterday. So I was really impressed by him.

Michael Penix Jr., similar to what I said about Caleb Williams, the way that he just continues to be the epitome of productive. The offense goes as he goes and they continue to just absolutely dominate offensively. So those are my three.

There you have it, the On3 national experts’ picks for the Heisman Trophy four weeks into the season. Stay tuned, because our experts will be providing their Heisman Trophy ballots throughout the season to let you know how the race is shifting in their minds. And with Week 5 featuring a few more marquee games from some of the contenders above, there should be plenty to talk about next week.