Heisman Trophy Rankings after Week 9: Is Travis Hunter now in driver's seat?

It may not have been the most chaotic day in terms of upsets in the AP Top 25 rankings or wild thrillers of games. But Week 9 was a week in college football when we learned quite a lot — and that definitely pertains to a still quite undecided Heisman Trophy race. While Ashton Jeanty out of Boise State entered the week as the favorite, Colorado's Travis Hunter and Oregon's Dillon Gabriel made their cases to overtake him.

Jeanty had the spotlight in Week 9 with a Friday night showcase against UNLV and, while he had a nice overall game, there are arguments to be made that it wasn't good enough. On the flip side, someone like Hunter also got a spotlight in a sparse late-night slate and he delivered one of his most dominant efforts of the year. The same may be true of Gabriel in a marquee matchup in a light week on the schedule.

So where does that leave us? There's plenty of movement in this week's Heisman Trophy rankings, so much so that we have to collect our thoughts and shuffle the Top 10 while I fill in this weekend for Scott Rogust.

No. 10-8: Giving Credit Where It's Due

It was about as surprising of a result for Ohio State as you could imagine against Nebraska, squeaking out a 21-17 win. Jeremiah Smith was hurt somewhat by the passing attack being lesser but he still managed three catches on Will Howard's measly 13 completions for 70 yards and a touchdown. Smith's consistency as a true freshman has been remarkable with at least 70 yards and scoring a touchdown in every game this season. The totals won't be enough for a Heisman Trophy, but it is enough to make you wonder if there's one coming his way in the future.

With Ole Miss almost out of the CFP race, it feels like Jaxson Dart's place in the Heisman Trophy rankings is also pretty much set at this point. Saturday's win over Oklahoma was indicative of that as the quarterback threw for 311 yards and rushed for 24 but had just one total touchdown. He's not been a wild statistical force to this point in the season, which would be fine if the Rebels were still a one-loss team or on that level. With that out of his back pocket, though, Dart hasn't been quite good enough to be a serious contender.

Look, it's highly, highly unlikely that Bryson Daily gets to travel across the state of New York to NYC for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, but the Army quarterback needs to get some love when talking about a Top 10 ranking. He leads the country in rushing touchdowns (19), is Top 10 in rushing yards (909) and has seven passing touchdowns on top of that for an undefeated Black Knights team. Again, I can't quite get there yet with the New York City finalist invite, but if he can put together four more games at this pace, crazier things have happened.

No. 7-5: Not Out, But It's a Long Shot

In all honesty, I have no idea what to make of Jalen Milroe at this point. He and Alabama dismantled Missouri on Saturday with the quarterback throwing for 215 yards and rushing for 50 with a touchdown, but it wasn't an overwhelmingly impressive game from the signal-caller. Moreover, his performances against Tennessee and even Vanderbilt still stand out as pressure points in the Heisman race, even with him now having 13 passing touchdowns and 12 rushing touchdowns on the season.

Maybe it's because he's not all that popular among some legions of college football fans, but denying Shedeur Sanders at this point is just plain foolish. As Colorado moved to 6-2 beating Cincinnati on Saturday night, the quarterback had another huge night, going 25-of-30 for 323 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for another score. Now over 2,500 passing yards with 21 passing TDs and three rushing scores at well, he's been what you'd want from a top-tier quarterback.

Cade Klubnik and the Clemson Tigers were on bye this week but the Tigers quarterback continues to deserve more Heisman-level attention than he's getting right now. He's completing 66.7 percent of his passes with 1,836 yards, 20 touchdowns and only three interceptions for the year along with 227 rushing yards and four touchdowns to his credit. He's been a driving force to Clemson's only blemish being the Georgia loss and, at some point, he needs to get the recognition for that in this race.

No. 4-1: The Clear Favorites

I came into Week 9 believing that Miami's matchup with a downtrodden rival in Florida State was the moment that Cam Ward could cement himself as the Heisman favorite in his own right. Instead, it was a perplexingly mediocre performance from the Hurricanes signal-caller and one that should remove him a bit from the favorites at the top of the odds board, even if he's still clearly in that group more so than in the second tier.

Sure, Miami won handily but they absolutely should've won by more and with more of a dominant effort from Ward. He was just 22-of-35 for 208 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in the passing game and had a net loss of four yards on seven attempts in the rushing attack. To his credit, he did haul in a touchdown reception on a trick play but that's not enough. As those ahead of him kept adding to their statistical totals, Ward missed an opportunity he could ill afford to given how tight this race might be.

With how tepid of a start Dillon Gabriel and Oregon got off to this season, it seemed like he could conceivably play himself out of a Heisman Trophy finalist spot. There is no such concern of that now. The Ducks are the No. 1 team in the country and appear entrenched in that spot and Gabriel keeps putting up numbers. Even with a Top 25-ranked Illinois team coming to town on Saturday, it didn't stop.

Gabriel finished the 29-point win for the Ducks with 18-of-26 passing for 291 yards, three touchdowns and a pick to go along with a rushing score as well. He now has 18 touchdowns passes with 2,371 yards through the air along with five rushing scores. With that type of production combined with the success in Eugene, it's hard to see him not in New York.

The good news for Ashton Jeanty is that the Boise State superstar did absolutely nothing to take himself out of the Heisman race during Friday night's thrilling victory over UNLV. The Broncos won and the running back notched 128 yards and a touchdown on the night, putting him still at an astounding 1,376 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground this season and 19 total scores.

And yet, Jeanty faces the biggest level of difficulty among the Heisman contenders, whether fair or not, for playing in the Group of 5. He has to put up truly otherworldly numbers to even be considered, which he's done, but a game wherein he averaged only 3.9 yards per carry is enough to find leeway to dock him a bit. He should be a lock to make it to New York as a finalist but his status as the clear-cut favorite is now gone.

My Stacking the Box: CFB Edition co-host Reed Wallach made a strong argument for why Travis Hunter had the best path to winning the Heisman Trophy and, by god, if the two-way Colorado star didn't go out and start delivering on that thought immediately. In a pretty high-profile spot late against Cincinnati, Hunter returned to what seemed like full health from a shoulder injury and delivered a world-class performance.

On offense, Hunter led the way for the Buffs with nine receptions for 153 yards and two touchdowns, which now puts him at 757 yards and nine scores on the year. But he also added three pass defenses in a lockdown game on defense, which now puts him at six passes defended, two interceptions and a forced fumble.

That level of two-way production with Colorado now also firmly in the Big 12 Championship race now makes this award Hunter's to lose from where I'm sitting.