Malachi Toney's injury will have a major impact on the college football season -- from the College Football Playoff picture to the Heisman Trophy race. As far as Toney is concerned, the Miami star receiver was destined for New York, and his absence opens the door for other contenders.
In a sick twist of fate, the Heisman candidate who benefits most from Toney's absence might be his Miami teammate, quarterback Darian Mensah. The electric duo was going to split votes, but now Mensah could make a push for the award while Toney is out, starting on Saturday night against No. 11 Notre Dame.
On the other side of that matchup, Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr can assert himself against Mensah and finally push himself into that top tier of favorites to win the award.
Then there's Jeremiah Smith, the clear frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy until Julian Sayin's injury. Now that Smith won't have to keep up with Toney's torrid pace, his path to college football's greatest individual honor is wide open, even with a true freshman qt quarterback.
Here's a deeper look at how Toney's injury will impact the Heisman Trophy chase in November.
Mensah vs. Carr becomes critical
The stakes of Saturday night's showdown in South Bend were already sky-high, but they just became stratospheric for the quarterbacks. Mensah is right there with Smith as one of the two clear favorites to win the award, but what if he goes on the road against a national championship contender and pulls out a win without his top wide receiver? Based on Miami's remaining schedule, they might want to get a jump on etching Mensah's name into the award.
Meanwhile, Carr has been holding steady behind the top tier of favorites for a while, and this is his chance to make a move. To this point, Notre Dame's schedule hasn't done Carr any favors. He hasn't really needed to post huge numbers to pick up wins, and the loss to BYU hurt his stock a bit. That said, Carr has been efficient with 8.3 yards per attempt and 18 touchdowns to one interception. This game against the Hurricanes may be his best shot to wow the Heisman voters. North Carolina's Billy Edwards Jr. just exploded for 341 yards against the Miami secondary, so there are holes. Can Carr find and exploit them?
One of these two quarterbacks will need a Heisman moment to win the game. Whoever finds it may have the upper hand going into the last few weeks of the season.
Smith's path widens again
With quarterback Julian Sayin out indefinitely with an injury to his throwing arm, Smith's chances of capturing the Heisman Trophy took a significant hit. Freshman Luke Fahey's limitations were clear against a USC defense that's underwhelmed for most of the season.
Smith wound up with a decent stat line against the Trojans, but he was held in check until USC played softer on the back end with a two-score lead. That didn't inspire much confidence in Smith's ability to keep up with Toney's production.
Now, Smith is right back in the race. In fact, he's the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy again, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. If Ohio State continues to pepper Smith with targets, he should put up numbers, even if it isn't always efficient. That starts this weekend in a top-25 matchup against Oregon, but Smith will have the chance to make plays against quality teams the rest of the way.
The big question for the Buckeyes is whether they can avoid one of two more losses down the stretch, which could put another dent in Smith's Heisman hopes.
SEC QBs are lurking
Prior to Toney's injury, the SEC didn't really have any obvious candidates for the Heisman Trophy. Trinidad Chambliss and Sam Leavitt are still long shots, but the door has been cracked open for those two.
In the case of Chambliss, he didn't make the most of his opportunity to win over voters against Texas, but he can get redemption this weekend. No. 2 Georgia is visiting Oxford for a primetime matchup, and if Chambliss can play well against Kirby Smart's defense and pick up a win, he'll give himself a shot to reach New York.
The more interesting SEC signal caller, in my opinion, is Leavitt. A high-profile transfer from Arizona State, Leavitt played relatively well early in the season, but some of those performances were stained by head-scratching turnovers. Well, over the last few weeks, Leavitt has elevated his game without making critical mistakes. With LSU entering the most critical stretch of its season, Leavitt's Heisman Trophy stock could be much higher by Thanksgiving.
