The 2026 Heisman Trophy race will inevitably have players joining the field who are not on this list because they flat-out could not be anticipated. After all, this time last year, current Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss had just led Ferris State to a 78-17 stomping of Central Oklahoma in the Division-II national championship game.
No one knew Chambliss would finish eighth in the 2025 Heisman balloting as the Rebels’ starter, with 3,018 passing yards, 470 rushing yards and 23 total touchdowns under his belt on a team that would ultimately finish the regular season with a school history-making 11-1 record en route to the program’s first berth in the College Football Playoff.
That said, there’s a lot we do know about next year and the biggest names set to dominate the sport.
Here’s how I see the 2026 Heisman race beginning, in no particular order, plus what some others in and around college football think about the players I selected.
The Buckeyes’ signal-caller notched a new FBS single-season passing completion percentage record (78.4%), and he’s the only person on this list who could earn the honor of being invited to New York in back-to-back years. Sayin purports himself as such too, telling himself and others close to him that he always expected to be a Heisman finalist.
Given the season he has had in 2025 — leading Ohio State to a sparkling 12-1 record and becoming the most accurate passer in history in just his first season as a starter — he’s not cocky; he’s just right. Had Sayin thrown for 300 yards and three touchdowns in a win against Indiana, there’s no question he would’ve been the runaway winner for the 2025 award and perhaps its first two-time winner since OSU RB Archie Griffin.
“Anybody [Nick] Saban wants and gets is a guy everybody wants and only he gets,” an SEC assistant told me. “So when [Sayin] fell to Ohio State, you knew that he was gonna not only be good but that the players around him were too. I don’t know if he’s gonna be as good as he was last year without [Carnell] Tate, but it’s not like [the Buckeyes] don’t have receivers.”
The Longhorns nearly watched their season go up in flames before the initial CFP rankings were released. Down 17 points to a bad Mississippi State team late in the season, Texas fans saw a chance at playing for a national title slipping away. But then, Manning put the team on his back and, in so doing, he brought the Longhorns all the way back for a 45-38 win in which he went 29-for-46 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and just one interception. That 17-point comeback marked the largest deficit overcome by one SEC team against another in 12 years until Texas A&M came back to defeat conference foe South Carolina by overcoming a 27-point deficit a few weeks later.
“I thought Arch battled his tail off,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said about that game. “I wish we played a little bit better around him at times … but he’s a warrior. He battles, he competes, he gets knocked down, he gets back up. He stands in the midst of the fire, and he continues to throw.”
It was the kind of performance that most had been expecting from Manning week in, week out. It was also just the kind of performance that reinforces his ceiling isn’t yet in sight.
“Y’all were too far ahead of him (last year),” an SEC general manager told me. “You and other people were just expecting this kid to put it together from Day 1. At quarterback, it’s not often that simple. [Sarkisian is] a good ball coach. Arch is a great player. He’ll show that again next year.”
In the lead-up to this year’s Big Ten title game, most of the Heisman conversation centered around two dueling quarterbacks and 2025 Heisman finalists: Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Sayin. It was clear to almost everybody, including Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti, that the best wide receiver in the country was on the Buckeyes’ sideline. Smith is an absolute force.
“You cover him as well as you can and hope the ball is not placed well,” Cignetti said. “I mean … he’s a great player — the greatest at that position that I’ve seen at that age. He’s a weapon.”
Smith, who turned 20 in November, notched his second consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season, already has four more catches this year (80) than he had all of last year (76) and absolutely scorched Indiana in OSU’s 13-10 loss in the Big Ten championship with eight catches for 144 yards.
“Look, they [Indiana] kept that dude [Smith] out of the end zone; that’s a great team effort,” an NFL scout told me. “But with that kid, it’s not a question. He’s been the best college player I’ve seen for two years now. I’d have given him the Heisman over the [Travis] Hunter kid last year. You don’t see them that good [and] that put together that young.”
If Smith doesn’t win the Heisman next year, that won’t be news, but if he does, it’s just one more reason NFL teams will be falling over themselves to select him.
Georgia might never produce a Heisman winner as long as Kirby Smart is the head coach. Then again, if Georgia never produces another 1,000-yard rusher in a single season (it hasn’t since 2019) or another 1,000-yard receiver in a single season (it hasn’t since 2004), it will always have a player in the Heisman mix because voters simply can’t help it.
Because of that, Georgia will probably produce a player — probably a quarterback — who receives enough votes to join the top 10 or even earn an invitation to New York as a finalist simply as a representative of one of the best teams in the sport. Right now, that’s Stockton, who has lost just two games as a starter in the SEC and is 2-0 in the SEC Championship Game.
If the Bulldogs win the SEC title for the third year in a row, perhaps I’m wrong about them and the Heisman.
Hardy has been one of the three best FBS tailbacks over the past two years. After rushing for over 1,300 yards as a true freshman at Louisiana-Monroe, he rushed for 1,560 at the big-boy level for Mizzou. In back-to-back years, he has carried the rock at least 237 times, averaged better than six yards per carry, notched 29 rushing touchdowns and accounted for the FBS’ only 300-yard rushing game in 2025. What’s more, he has never fumbled the football.
What Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz has in Hardy is one of those players who was made for offseason buildup and historical comparisons. Get ready to hear his name early and often.
“That’s RB1,” an NFL scout told me. “In 2027, that’s the guy to go get.”
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.
