The Heisman. The most illustrious award a college football player can win. This is how present-day players cement themselves with the all-time greats of college football. Every year we follow the top players hoping to catch their “Heisman moment” where they make show why they deserve the Heisman. I’ve created my top 5, in no order, candidates for the award as of right now and is up for change next week.

Josh Adams (Notre Dame) – Adams has 1169 yards rushing this year with an 8.9 average per carry, 5.6 yards per carry after contact, and 9 touchdowns total. Those are some jaw dropping stats. After an incredible past week at NC State with 202 yards on the ground with a touchdown and a long run of 77 yards, Adams has cemented his name with the Heisman candidates. If he keeps these numbers up and Notre Dame keeps racking up the wins, I think we can all expect Mr. Adams to be at least a Heisman finalist. Saquon Barkley (Penn State) – Barkley took a hit to his Heisman campaign this past week at Ohio State. After a blazing start with a kickoff return and a 36-yard touchdown run, Barkley was held to a game total of 21 rushes for 44 yards. If you take away the long run of 36 then Barkley ran for a miserable .4 yards per carry. Ohio State’s defensive line might be the best in the country, but Heisman candidates find a way to compete and overcome great talent. Besides that, Barkley still records 1612 of total yards on the year with 15 total touchdowns. Those stats are amazing through 8 games which is why Barkley is still in my top 5. JT Barrett (Ohio State) – Okay I go to Ohio State. Everyone wanted this guy out as starter after the loss. Everyone besides me.When I actually started watching the film of JT, you realize that he isn’t the one to be blamed for Ohio State’s loss against Oklahoma. That was a full team loss. I thought JT was a guy who wasn’t going to win you a game, but not lose you a game either. That was until this past week against Penn State. I thought our offense was putting up numbers against bad teams and it was going to be right back to struggling against Penn State, but boywas I wrong. JT was 33-39, 4 TD, no interceptions, 95 yards rushing on 17 attempts, and a game winning drive in the 4th quarter to upset the #2 team in the nation. Going along with 2166 passing yards, 454 rushing yards, 25 TD’s through the air and 5 on the ground, with only 1 INT on the year, JT Barrett has launched himself into the Heisman talks. If he leads Ohio State to a final record of 12-1 and continues to put up these numbers, you can expect JT Barrett to be in New York City for the Heisman ceremony as at least a finalist. Bryce Love (Stanford): Love leads the nation in rushing yards with 1387 yards with an amazing 10.3 yards per carry. Okay just think about this for one sec. Theoretically, every time Stanford gives the ball to Love, they get a first down. Obviously, that’s not the case, but the yards per carry speaks for itself. And do you want to hear another amazing stat? Love missed the last game with an ankle injury. So, he was so far ahead in rushing yards that he could miss a game and still lead the nation! Now, if this injury continues to hold Love out, his Heisman chances slip away. It sucks to see injury be the reason a guy of his talent unable to win an award, but that might be the scenario if this injury lingers. Lamar Jackson (Louisville): We all know Lamar Jackson. Reigning Heisman trophy winner. This guy puts them up. 2808 yards passing, 1029 yards rushing, 18 TD’s through the air with another 14 on the ground. This is on pace to match his yards from last year with maybe a bit of a digress in the TD area. Lamar’s problem is his team isn’t that good. When it comes down to it, we want to have a Heisman that is a winner statistically and record-wise. With his team at 5-4, it’s very hard for some people to put him in the discussion. But in my mind, it’s hard not to put a guy with almost 4000 total yards in the discussion.

Guys on the Outside looking in: Mason Rudolph (Oklahoma State) , Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma) , Rashaad Penny (San Diego State), Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin)

Those last 4 guys all throw up an argument to be in that top 5. Maybe next week all three of those guys will jump into the top 5 after a strong showing in the upcoming week. Maybe there will be another guy thrown into the mix completely. There are plenty of games this weekend that will give plenty of guys chances to prove themselves as Heisman worthy candidates.

@JaredK_33