Heisman Trophy watch 2021: Top 5 contenders heading into Week 8

The Heisman Trophy race in 2021 is a two-horse battle between Bryce Young and Matt Corral. Here are our top 5 contenders as we hit Week 8. 

Week 8 of the college football season is upon us and actually, it started a few days ago because we are lucky enough to have college football on just about every night.

That was the dream when I was a kid when there was generally one or two games on at a time you could watch. But at any rate, Week 8 isn’t a jam-packed schedule, although there could be some critical moments in the Heisman Trophy race.

Bryce Young re-established himself in the No. 1 spot after a strong showing against Mississippi State, while Matt Corral carried Ole Miss to a win at Tennessee and added even more momentum to his Heisman campaign.

There isn’t a single ranked matchup on the schedule Saturday but with Ole Miss at LSU and Bama taking on Tennessee, plus Ohio State and some other contenders in action, the Heisman Trophy race could still be impacted, and here’s the rundown of contenders.

Heisman Trophy Candidate No. 5: Desmond Ridder, QB, Cincinatti

As well as the Bearcats are playing right now, Ridder’s candidacy is going to fall by the wayside with more 140-yard passing games, which is all he had against UCF in a 56-21 win.

Of course, that’s all he needed. Cincinatti dominated the game but Ridder is 53rd in the nation in passing yards and 13th in touchdowns. He doesn’t even have a 300-yard game to his credit and if this Heisman field wasn’t one of the weakest in years, he wouldn’t be in the mix.

He needs big numbers down the stretch because he won’t have more games like Notre Dame to catch the attention of voters.