Each week, the Athlon editors and others who closely follow college football vote on the most prestigious award in the sport. A 13-man conglomerate of college football gurus from Athlon Sports and other publications cast their votes this week for their top Heisman Trophy candidates. The votes will be tallied and the results will be posted as the Athlon Sports Heisman Watch List every week of the regular season.
Voting: Each first-place vote receives 10 points. A second-place vote receives nine points. So on and so forth with a 10th-place vote receiving one point. Here are Athlon's guest voters:
Barrett Sallee: Bleacher Report SEC [21] Lead Writer (@BarrettSallee [22])
Jim Young: ACCSports.com [23] (@ACCSports [24])
Blair Kerkhoff: Kansas City Star [25] (@BlairKerkhoff [26])
Chris Level: RedRaiderSports.com [27] (@ChrisLevel [28])
1. Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia (7 first-place votes)
Season Stats: 195-259, 2,271 yards, 25 TD, 0 INT, 28 att., 71 yards, TD
His strangle hold on the Heisman Trophy took a major hit this weekend in the blowout loss to Texas Tech. Did he need to go unbeaten to win the award? No. But he opened the Heisman door for other names to close the gap after 275 yards and one touchdown against the Red Raiders. He still has yet to throw an interception and is leading the nation in passing efficiency (180.8) Next game: Kansas State
| Last | Name | Pos. | Team | Tot. Pts | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Ballots | |
| 1. | (1) | Geno Smith | QB | W. Virginia | 120/130 | 7 | 4 | 1 | - | 1 | 13/13 |
| 2. | (2) | Braxton Miller | QB | Ohio St | 115/130 | 5 | 3 | 4 | - | 1 | 13/13 |
| 3. | (3) | Collin Klein | QB | Kansas St | 103/130 | - | 5 | 5 | 2 | - | 13/13 |
| 4. | (4) | Manti Te'o | LB | Notre Dame | 83/130 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 12/13 |
| 5. | (16) | Johnny Manziel | QB | Texas A&M | 60/130 | - | - | - | 1 | 5 | 13/13 |
| 6. | (7) | Matt Barkley | QB | USC | 35/130 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 7/13 |
| 7. | (6) | De'Anthony Thomas | AP | Oregon | 34/130 | - | - | 1 | 3 | - | 6/13 |
| 8. | (9) | Kenjon Barner | RB | Oregon | 26/130 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 7/13 |
| 9. | (8) | A.J. McCarron | QB | Alabama | 24/130 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 6/13 |
| 10. | (18) | Barrett Jones | OL | Alabama | 23/130 | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 4/13 |
| 11. | (5) | Marcus Lattimore | RB | S. Carolina | 17/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 5/13 |
| 12. | (10) | Mike Gillislee | RB | Florida | 15/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 5/13 |
| 13. | (17) | DeAndre Hopkins | WR | Clemson | 13/130 | - | - | - | 1 | - | 3/13 |
| 14. | (11) | E.J. Manuel | QB | Florida St | 10/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 4/13 |
| 15. | (23) | Denard Robinson | QB | Michigan | 8/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 2/13 |
| 16. | (12) | Stedman Bailey | WR | W. Virginia | 6/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 2/13 |
| 17. | (ur) | Giovanni Bernard | RB | N. Carolina | 3/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 2/13 |
| 18. | (13) | Marqise Lee | WR | USC | 3/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 19. | (ur) | Montee Ball | RB | Wisconsin | 3/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 2/13 |
| 20. | (24) | Venric Mark | RB | N'Western | 2/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 21. | (16) | Jadeveon Clowney | DE | S. Carolina | 2/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 2/13 |
| 22. | (ur) | Nick Florence | QB | Baylor | 2/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 23. | (14) | Tavon Austin | WR | W. Virginia | 2/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 24. | (ur) | Seth Doege | QB | Texas Tech | 1/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 25. | (ur) | Johnathan Franklin | RB | UCLA | 1/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 26. | (21) | Aaron Murray | QB | Georgia | 1/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
| 27. | (22) | Jarvis Jones | LB | Georgia | 1/130 | - | - | - | - | - | 1/13 |
2. Braxton Miller, QB, Ohio State (5 first place votes)
Season Stats: 96-159, 1,271 yards, 11 TD, 4 INT, 129 att., 912 yards, 9 TD
Miller continues to will his team to victory on a weekly basis. The sophomore rushed for 149 yards and a touchdown to go with 212 yards passing and two more scores in the air. He has accounted for 20 total touchdowns, is third in the Big Ten in rushing, second in total offense, third in passing efficiency and is the leader of one of two 7-0 teams in the nation (Ohio). Next Game: Purdue
3. Collin Klein, QB, Kansas State
Season Stats: 79-118, 1,074 yards, 7 TD, 2 INT, 98 att., 510 yards, 10 TD
Klein led his team to another clutch hard-fought road conference win by rushing for 105 yards and three touchdowns in the 27-21 victory over Iowa State. He is fourth in the Big Ten in rushing and has 37 rushing touchdowns in the last season and a half. He is the epitome of toughness, heart and leadership. Next Game: at West Virginia
4. Manti Te'o, LB, Notre Dame
Season Stats: 59 tackles, 2.0 TFL, 3 INT, FR, 3 PBU
The Fighting Irish defense has not allowed a touchdown since Week 2 against Purdue and is No. 2 in the nation in scoring defense (8.7 ppg). Te'o posted 11 total tackles in the physical showdown win over Stanford and was an integral part of the four-down goal-line stand to win the game. He leads the Irish in tackles at 9.83 per game. Next Game: BYU
5. Johnny Manziel, QB, Texas A&M
Season Stats: 128-190, 1,680 yards, 14 TD, 3 INT, 91 att., 676 yards, 10 TD
Johnny Football set an SEC single-game total offense record against Louisiana Tech with 577 total yards (395 passing, 181 rushing) and six total touchdowns in the wild win. He is now leading the SEC in rushing (112.7 ypg) and total offense (392.7 ypg) and has accounted for 24 touchdowns. He is the most exciting player in the league, but he has another big test coming this weekend against the Bayou Bengals. Next Week: LSU
6. Matt Barkley, QB, USC
Season Stats: 121-193, 1,475 yards, 16 TD, 6 INT, 15 att., minus-65 yards
Next game: Colorado
7. De’Anthony Thomas, AP, Oregon
Season Stats: 41 att., 377 yds, 6 TD, 20 rec., 205 yds, 3 TD, 10 PR, 150 PR yds, 6 KR, 88 yds
Next Game: at Arizona State
8. Kenjon Barner, RB, Oregon
Season Stats: 116 att., 727 yards, 9 TD, 11 rec., 111 yards, TD
Next Game: at Arizona State
9. A.J. McCarron, QB, Alabama
Season Stats: 89-132, 1,170 yards, 12 TD, 0 INT, 23 att., minus- yards
Next Game: at Tennessee
10. Barrett Jones, OL, Alabama
Season Stats: 217.2 rush yards per game, 423.0 total yards per game, 40.5 points per game
Next Game: at Tennessee
by Braden Gall
Follow @bradengall [29]
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