Last year Travis Hunter played—and dominated at—two positions to win the Heisman Trophy. It will likely take a similarly epic performance this time around to take the trophy away from front-runner Arch Manning. Here is Manning’s case, plus the players with the best prospects to stiff-arm him.
Arch Manning, QB, Texas
Manning has just 12 appearances and 95 career attempts to his name in college football but he’s the preseason favorite to take home an award his uncle Peyton famously came ever so close to winning a few decades ago. It’s difficult to say if the hype around the young quarterback will help or hurt any chance he has of living up to his lofty billing, but there’s no question Manning is the player who will draw the most eyeballs this season. It certainly doesn’t hurt to be under center for a team garnering a lot of support to win the national title, as the best player on the best team is typically a winning Heisman formula either way.
Drew Allar, QB, Penn State
Allar’s final pass of last season in the Orange Bowl cost Penn State a trip to the national title game and serves as a powerful motivator going into his senior year in Happy Valley. His 6' 5", 235-pound frame has NFL scouts drooling at the prospect of him becoming a potential No. 1 pick next spring and improving his 24:8 touchdown-to-interception ratio could result in much more than an invite to New York in December.
Cade Klubnik, QB, Clemson
The native Texan has steadily improved each year with the Tigers. His 36 touchdown passes last season are the most of any returning quarterback for 2025. Clemson brings back most of Klubnik’s weapons in the passing game from a surprise CFP run. The pressure will be on to etch his name alongside that of his ring-winning predecessors in Death Valley.
Sam Leavitt, QB, Arizona State
Leavitt went from overlooked Michigan State transfer to a starter who helped lead a team picked last in the Big 12 to a playoff berth and conference title. With hard-nosed tailback Cam Skattebo gone, there’s a lot more on the quarterback’s shoulders after throwing for 2,885 yards and 24 touchdowns in his first full year in Tempe.
LaNorris Sellers, QB, South Carolina
When healthy, Sellers is a dynamic threat capable of making plays with his arm (completing 66% of his passes for 2,534 yards) or his legs (seven rushing TDs). The bespectacled gunslinger helped lead the Gamecocks to six wins in a row to close out the regular season last year and there’s hope that he takes yet another leap in 2025.
Jeremiah Smith, WR, Ohio State
Heisman voters have become more open to placing non-quarterbacks on their ballots in recent years, and there’s a good case to be made that Smith is the best player in the sport by a wide margin. The highlight machine is a regular at making one-handed catches and should somehow be even more polished than he was as a true freshman in recording 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Garrett Nussmeier, QB, LSU
You wouldn’t typically think of LSU as an Air Raid–light team but last season they forced Nussmeier to throw the ball and throw it often (second-most pass attempts in FBS). He returns for his senior year as a true signal-caller capable of spraying pinpoint passes all over the field and should have an even better Tigers supporting cast in 2025. He has a high-profile opener and plays in the SEC, so it’s possible the Heisman returns to Baton Rouge for a second time in three seasons.
Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame
Love is the Irish’s home run hitter with the way he broke off long touchdown runs, and his 6.90 yards per carry was just a tick behind Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty last season (6.95). The junior will carry more of a load in 2025 with Notre Dame breaking in an inexperienced new quarterback and should have much more than the 10 carries per game he averaged last season. That should translate into the type of numbers that make him a threat to get to New York and become the first tailback to take home the trophy in a decade.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Heisman Trophy Preseason Candidates: Arch Manning Against the Field.
