
10 dark-horse Heisman Trophy candidates I'm following heading into 2025
Their names are already familiar.
Garrett Nussmeier. Arch Manning. Cade Klubnik. Nico Iamaleava. Drew Allar. Jeremiah Smith. LaNorris Sellers. Carson Beck.
They’re the preseason favorites to win the Heisman Trophy in 2025, according to FanDuel sportsbook.
It’s a good list, for starters.
But keep in mind that Ashton Jeanty was barely a blip on the radar heading into last season with odds of +20000 that made him an extreme longshot for college football’s most prestigious award. And the Boise State running back still ended up getting more votes than anyone other than winner Travis Hunter. (Including mine. I picked Hunter to win, Jeanty 2nd and Cam Ward 3rd.)
So you never know who might come out of nowhere to play himself into contention.
With that in mind, here are 10 lesser-known standouts who could very well find themselves on my ballot and in New York as a Heisman finalist come December:
Caleb Downs, Safety, Ohio State (+18000)
It’s asking a lot of a defensive player to finish among the top 3 in the voting, let alone win the award. It took Hunter doubling as a receiver for it to finally happen. But Downs has been arguably the best safety in the country in each of the past 2 seasons, first at Alabama and now at Ohio State, where he was a major factor in the Buckeyes’ national championship run. Downs was a finalist for the Thorpe and Bednarik awards in 2024 and he’ll be a favorite to win both in 2025. And he could also factor into the Heisman conversation, especially if he takes a couple of punts back to the house, as he did in going 79 yards for a touchdown against Indiana.
Sam Leavitt, QB, Arizona State (+5000)
Do-it-all running back Cam Skattebo was the star of the show during the Sun Devils’ run to the College Football Playoff and the driving force behind the comeback that nearly stunned Texas in the quarterfinal. But Leavitt was just as big a factor in Arizona State’s rise from last in the preseason Big 12 poll to winning the conference championship. The Sun Devils were 11-1 in games in which he played in his first season after transferring from Michigan State. Leavitt finished with 24 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. His production is projected to increase exponentially next season with the departure of Skattebo and the return of top receiver Jordyn Tyson from injury.
Jeremiyah Love, RB, Notre Dame (+5000)
It’s been a decade since Alabama’s Derrick Henry became the most recent running back to win the Heisman in 2015. But with Jeanty’s near-breakthrough this season and Love’s Notre Dame pedigree, he stands as good a chance as any primary ball carrier heading into 2025. Love has the credentials to back up his candidacy. He rushed for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns in carrying the Irish to the national championship game. But beyond the raw numbers is his propensity for Heisman-worthy moments. Memorable plays like his flying leap into the end zone over a Southern Cal defender or his 98-yard touchdown sprint to get the Irish off and running in their Playoff opener against Indiana.
HIGH FLY TO CENTER FIELD
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 24, 2024
TOUCHDOWN @JeremiyahLove #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/U1hg2KQFdu
Jalon Daniels, QB, Kansas (+4000)
No, not Jayden Daniels. He already has a Heisman. This is Jalon Daniels. And he’s the epitome of an under-the-radar candidate, though he hasn’t always been. Daniels was the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year in 2023 after leading Kansas to a 5-0 start and throwing for a Liberty Bowl record 544 yards against Arkansas the previous year. But he’s been sidetracked by injuries since. Daniels showed flashes of his old self in leading the Jayhawks to late-season upsets that helped knock Colorado and Iowa State out of Playoff contention. Now in his 6th college season, he’s healthy again and poised to put up the big numbers that became his trademark earlier in his career.
Ryan Williams, WR, Alabama (+3500)
If not for Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, Williams would be the rising sophomore receiver everyone would be talking about heading into next season. In fact, until Smith became a national sensation with his Playoff performances against Tennessee and Oregon, Williams was the true freshman receiver everyone was talking about in 2024. He’s a human cheat code who burst onto the scene with a ridiculous 75-yard touchdown catch and run to beat Georgia, punctuated by a ridiculous spin move. Like Smith, Williams was a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist while recording 48 receptions for 865 yards and 8 touchdowns. And he doesn’t turn 18 until next month, so he still has a lot of room to grow before reaching his ceiling.
17 year old Ryan Williams should be a senior in High School right now. And he’s doing this against Georgia’s secondary.
— Kevin Negandhi (@KevinNegandhi) September 29, 2024
pic.twitter.com/UKcZ3am75K
Miller Moss, QB, Louisville (+3300)
Moss is a former 4-star prospect ranked by ESPN as the No. 3 quarterback on this year’s free agent market. He’s coming off a 2024 season in which he threw for 2,555 yards and 18 touchdowns with 9 interceptions at Southern Cal before being benched in favor of Jayden Maiava for the final 3 games. Although things didn’t go as planned with the Trojans under Lincoln Riley, Moss has the talent to thrive given a fresh start, especially under Jeff Brohm in a quarterback-friendly system that has already produced transfer portal success stories in Jack Plummer and Tyler Shough.
Kevin Jennings, QB, SMU (+3000)
Don’t judge Jennings by his performance against Penn State. He didn’t handle the pressure or the cold well and it showed. But that doesn’t change the fact that the elusive 6-foot, 189-pound sophomore is an athletic, elusive dual-threat playmaker who put his team on his shoulders and carried it to the Playoff in its first season as a power conference program. Jennings closed out the regular season with 9 straight wins after he took over as the Mustangs’ full-time starter against TCU on Sept. 21. And he led a late 17-point comeback that tied Clemson in the final minute of the ACC title game and helped SMU earn the final at-large bid into the 12-team Playoff field.
DJ Lagway, QB, Florida (+2500)
It took a season-ending injury to Graham Mertz against Tennessee in Week 6 for Billy Napier to finally give in to the inevitable to turn his offense over to his star true freshman. And even then, it took a couple of extra weeks for Lagway to recover from a hamstring injury for him to display the full array of his talents. In the process, he helped save Napier’s job by leading Florida to upsets of LSU and Ole Miss on the way to a season-ending 4-game winning streak. Lagway has good size at 6-3, 239 pounds with a cannon of an arm. He set a school freshman record by throwing for 456 yards against Samford and was 5-1 in his 6 starts.
John Mateer, QB, Oklahoma (+2500)
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A talented quarterback who put up big numbers in relative obscurity at Washington State leaves Pullman to head East to a brand-name program in hopes of getting his team into the Playoff, raising his draft profile and earning Heisman mention. Mateer can only hope things work out as well for him at Oklahoma as they did for Cam Ward at Miami last season. He picked right up where Ward left off at Wazzu by throwing for 352 yards and 5 touchdowns in his first career start against Portland State. A true dual-threat quarterback, he passed for 3,139 yards and ran for 826 yards while accounting for a combined 44 scores. He’ll be counted on heavily to help bring the Sooners back from their 6-7 disappointment in their SEC debut last season.
Dante Moore, QB, Oregon (+2000)
Dan Lanning’s offense has produced Heisman finalists in each of the past 2 seasons. Bo Nix finished out of the money in 2023 while Dillon Gabriel finished 3rd this season. Perhaps the third time will really be the charm for Ducks quarterbacks. Like Nix and Gabriel before him, Moore started his career elsewhere. He saw action in 9 games, starting 5, as a true freshman at UCLA, throwing for 1,610 yards and 11 touchdowns before spending last season as Gabriel’s understudy at Oregon. Moore is a relatively unknown quantity. But given his strong, accurate arm and the elite playmakers surrounding him, he doesn’t figure to stay that way for long.