Heisman rankings – Week 3: Tua has record day for Alabama

6. Sam Ehlinger, QB, Texas

Despite the fact that the Texas Longhorns lost a tough one to LSU last week, I championed that Sam Ehlinger shouldn’t see his Heisman Trophy candidacy take too big of a hit. He was not the reason that they lost to the Tigers and, in fact, he was the primary reason they had a chance to get the win in that game. He made me feel better about that as the quarterback bounce back against Rice.

The Texas signal-caller was near perfect on Saturday evening as he went 23-of-27 for 279 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 27 yards. Ehlinger remains the lifeblood of Tom Herman’s offense in Austin and has the goods to continue producing as the team relies on him to make those plays. Playing Big 12 defenses will only help his numbers improve throughout the rest of the year.

5. Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State

The third Buckeye to be featured on these rankings — deservedly so — is quarterback Justin Fields, who continues to not break much of a sweat but put up nice numbers. In the win against Indiana this week, the Georgia transfer went 14-of-24 for 199 yards and three touchdowns while also adding a rushing touchdown to his credit.

Through three games, Fields only has 657 yards passing, though he has nine passing touchdowns along with 114 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. In truth, Ohio State hasn’t needed him to do much more than that and he’s been impressive. What will be curious, though, is to see if he can ramp up the production in terms of yardage while also staying mistake-free and keeping in the end zone when the level of competition increases.