Heisman Race Heats Up after Last Weekend's Games

After last weekend's games, the Heisman race is once again turned on its ear.

The front-runner for many was thought to be quarterback Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville. But Bridgewater struggled somewhat against Kentucky, which is considered by many as the worst team in the SEC.

Two stocks on the rise this past weekend, not surprisingly, were Johnny Manziel and AJ McCarron.

Both had huge games last Saturday, especially Manziel, who had over 500 yards against the Alabama defense, whom many thought would shut down Johnny Football. That and his unbelievable play against the Tide skyrocketed his stock almost to the top.

Same with McCarron. The Tide signal-caller's performance turned a number of heads this weekend, and despite him struggling against a good Virgina Tech defense in the first game of the season, McCarron came back strong and put up big numbers himself against A&M.

But your leader at this point is not Manziel, McCarron, or Bridgewater, it's Marcus Mariota of Oregon. The speedy Duck quarterback, so far, is putting up monster numbers to this point of the season. Granted, they were non-conference games, but that's about to change. Mariota will have a chance to prove to the rest of the country if he is worthy of the Heisman when he faces UCLA and Stanford back-to-back in late October and early November.

Oh, and let's not forget freshman sensation Jameis Winston of Florida State. It used to be that freshmen were never seriously considered for the Downtown Athletic Club's annual award, but Manziel changed that perception last year.

Here is the current list of Top 10 Heisman contenders according to ESPN, and so far from the looks of it, it's a quarterback's year to win it yet again.

Marcus Mariota	QB	Oregon	So.	3	9	1	2	0	58
Tajh Boyd	QB	Clemson	Sr.	6	2	3	1	2	51
Johnny Manziel	QB	Texas A&M	So.	5	3	4	1	0	51
Teddy Bridgewater	QB	Louisville	Jr.	0	2	1	2	6	21
AJ McCarron	QB	Alabama	Sr.	1	0	2	4	2	21
Todd Gurley	RB	Georgia	So.	0	0	4	2	2	18
Braxton Miller	QB	Ohio State	Jr.	1	0	0	0	0	5
Jameis Winston	QB	Florida State	Fr.	0	0	0	2	1	5
Brett Hundley	QB	UCLA	So.	0	0	0	1	1	3
Sammy Watkins	WR	Clemson	Jr.	0	0	1	0	0	3