Heisman Trophy watch: John Mateer injury news shakes up the race after Week 4

Oklahoma quarterback and early Heisman Trophy contender John Mateer just hit a major setback in his 2025 season with the Sooners as the team announced he will undergo surgery on his throwing hand and miss an unspecified amount of time.

OU announced the news Tuesday afternoon with a statement from head coach Brent Venables explaining that a surgical procedure was the best option for getting Mateer back to 100% as soon as possible. It's a real bummer for Oklahoma following their electric start to the year, especially with Mateer leading many sports books as the top choice for the Heisman Trophy.

The most optimistic report on Mateer so far comes from Pete Nakos, who said "there's some hope" he could return for the Red River Showdown against Texas on Oct. 11, while three weeks appears to be the accepted timeline for a realistic return, assuming the recovery goes smoothly.

For now, his absence, unfortunate as it is, allows for some of the secondary contenders to step into the spotlight. Mateer hadn't ran away with the award by any Week 4, but with two terrific performances in big Sooner wins, he quickly became one of the season's most recognizable names.

Big Ten quarterbacks take over as Heisman favorites

Mateer was the consensus favorite according to the betting markets prior to his injury but the books are nimble and FanDuel had yanked off the board by late Tuesday afternoon, replacing him with a pair of red-hot quarterbacks from the Big Ten: Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore. You can see FanDuel's full top 10 here:

Fernando Mendoza (Indiana) | +650
Dante Moore (Oregon) | +1000
Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State) | +1000
Carson Beck (Miami) | +1200
Gunner Stockton (Georgia) | +1200
Marcel Reed (Texas A&M) | +1400
Jayden Maiava (USC) | +1400
Josh Hoover (TCU) | +1400
Joey Aguilar (Tennessee) | +1400
Garrett Nussmeier (LSU) | +1600
Julian Sayin (Ohio State) | +1600

Fernando Mendoza ought to enjoy his view from the summit this week, because he is a Heisman favorite who hit the perfect note at the perfect time. The Hoosier QB hardly threw an incompletion as he tore straight through Illinois defense all evening long in IU's 63-10 decimation. Mendoza announced himself to the national audience right as the Heisman front-runner went down, landing in first place all by himself as the Heisman favorite according both to FanDuel and Draft Kings as of this moment.

Dante Moore and Jeremiah Smith come in next on the list, with Carson Beck rounding out the top four. Moore hasn't dazzled in a big time game yet but could easily overtake Mendoza as the favorite if he leads the Ducks to a win at Penn State this weekend with College GameDay in town. Of course, we all know Jeremiah Smith is a threat to erupt into the most unstoppable player in college football at a moment's notice.

The Heisman race was already fairly wide open, but just grew even more so thanks to some tough news for Oklahoma QB John Mateer.

Big Ten quarterbacks take over as Heisman favorites

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