Through the first 4 weeks of the College Football season, the race for the Heisman Trophy is wide open. The front runners for the award coming into the season haven't lived up to the expectations which allows a ton of the candidates everyone wrote of to climb into the race. This weekend, as conference play and rivalry games continued, 3 dark horse candidates may have sparked serious campaigns for the award.
3 Heisman dark horses may have sparked campaigns in Week 4
The TCU Horned Frogs already have a pair of impressive wins beating North Carolina and SMU this weekend. The Horned Frogs got a massive effort from their quarterback as Josh Hoover passed for 379 yards and 5 touchdowns lifting TCU to a win. Through 3 games, Hoover has passed for 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns with just 2 interceptions. If TCU can go on a run in the Big 12,
All Lincoln Riley has done in his career is produce Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks and in Jayden Maiava he may have what it takes to make a run at the award. On Saturday Night in the USC Trojans first true test of the season, Maiava was stellar passing for 234 yards and 3 touchdowns while rushing for 31 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Through four games, Maiava has 13 total touchdowns and if he can keep the production up in Big Ten play, the Trojans are in business.
The Indiana Hoosiers dismantled the Illinois Fighting Illini in a way that means we all have to take them seriously. When Indiana was beating up on far inferior opponents, it was hard to tell if Fernando Mendoza was the real deal or not. When Fernando Mendoza carves Illinois completing 21 of 23 attempts for 267 yards and 5 touchdowns it's impossible to brush him off. Mendoza has already passed for 14 touchdowns and 975 yards with 2 touchdowns on the ground and he has the production to make a serious push for the Heisman.
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