Heisman Trophy watch 2021: Top 5 candidates after Week 4

Week 4 was a tough week for some Heisman Trophy contenders, but Bryce Young, Matt Corral, and Desmond Ridder all saw their stock improve.

College football is unpredictable. That’s part of the reason we all love it — the upsets, the amazing finishes, fans storming the field — it’s March Madness every Saturday.

And last Saturday, we same some big-time upsets in college football, and many of those upsets sealed some doomed Heisman trophy campaigns.

You can count Sam Howell out of the mix after a disastrous game against Georgia Tech. The same can be said for Iowa State’s Breece Hall and Brock Purdy. They were each a longshot but have no shot after the Cyclones’ loss to Baylor.

Malik Willis, despite stellar numbers, also wasn’t helped by a 41-24 defeat to Syracuse. The Orange aren’t that good and a win by Liberty could have opened some eyes. Instead, he’s on the outside looking in, but being monitored because he’s got 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions.

CJ Verdell had surged to No. 3 two weeks ago in our Heisman trophy rankings, but he’s out of the top five after back-to-back games with under 100 yards. Blake Corum of Michigan and Kenneth Walker of Michigan State also had pedestrian games, which really hurt running backs.

They weren’t serious contenders anyway in my book. TreVeyon Henderson could be at Ohio State. After not playing a ton the first two games, he had 277 yards and three touchdowns in Week 3 and followed it up with 94 and two scores last week against Akron.

So far this has been the weakest Heisman trophy field in years and that’s why No. 5 on our list makes his first appearance after a bye week.

Heisman Trophy candidate No. 5: Desmond Ridder, QB, Cincinnati

Desmond Ridder hasn’t been on my radar a ton and this is his first appearance in these rankings. But he helped the Bearcats get a really big win at Indiana before the bye week. He accounted for 255 yards and two total touchdowns for the unbeaten Bearcats.

That being said, Ridder has a long way to go. His numbers aren’t great and he completed less than 60 percent of his passes against Indiana. He did make some clutch plays though and that’s part of what the Heisman is all about — those memorable moments.

He’s on that list because he can create some Heisman moments by leading the Bearcats to a win in South Bend this weekend in a battle of top-10 teams. If he plays well and has a signature moment, the stats will have time to catch up.

But a loss Saturday will likely end Ridder’s hopes.