There Is a New Heisman Trophy Favorite in College Football After Friday

This program has never had a receiver to put up a game like this, and the record book took notice as the Heisman rumblings grow louder.

After a huge Week 1 performance, this star wide receiver inserted his name firmly into the mix for Heisman Trophy consideration. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

A record that stood for 42 years fell in Palo Alto on Friday night. Miami sophomore wide receiver Malachi Toney caught 12 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-6 win over Stanford, breaking a Hurricanes single-game receiving mark set by Eddie Brown in 1984.

Toney flashed the Heisman pose after every score, and the performance opened a season-long conversation about whether a wide receiver can win the award.

Malachi Toney's monster performance puts him in the Heisman mix

Malachi Toney

11 REC 229 YDS 3 TDS 3 HEISMAN POSES pic.twitter.com/zGC9vtuUX1

— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) September 5, 2026

Toney scored on a 23-yard catch in the first quarter, added a two-yard touchdown before halftime and capped his night with a 47-yard score in the third quarter. He finished with more receiving yards than any player in Miami history has produced in a single game, and he did it against a Stanford defense that gave up 45 points in the loss.

New Miami quarterback Darian Mensah threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns in his Hurricanes debut, completing 27 of 30 passes. Three of those scores went to Toney. The Duke transfer arrived at Miami with a group that includes Toney and fellow transfer Cooper Barkate, and Friday's opener showed how much production that trio can generate in one game.

Toney is not new to this level of output. As a true freshman in 2025, he set the Miami single-season receptions record and finished with 1,211 receiving yards, numbers that helped carry the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Indiana. He reclassified out of high school to enroll a year early, meaning he opened his sophomore season at 18 years old with a Playoff title game already on his résumé.

Wide receivers almost never win the Heisman

Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Malachi Toney (1) reacts toward the stands after scoring a touchdown against the Stanford Cardinal during the first quarter at Stanford Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Quarterbacks have won 21 of the last 25 Heisman Trophies. Only four wide receivers have ever won the award. Johnny Rodgers won in 1972, Tim Brown in 1987, Desmond Howard in 1991 and Alabama's DeVonta Smith in 2020, the only receiver to win in the last 34 years.

Rodgers was a dual-threat as a running back and receiver. Brown and Howard also had big contributions as kick and punt returners. So it will help Toney's case if he continues to return punts for the Hurricanes.

Smith's Heisman case is the standard any receiver has to clear. He caught 105 passes for 1,641 yards and 20 touchdowns in the 2020 regular season, then added more production through the College Football Playoff en route to a national championship. Reaching those numbers requires a full season of week-to-week volume, not one signature outing in September.

The 2026 Heisman odds board is filled with quarterbacks. Notre Dame's CJ Carr and Texas' Arch Manning have opened as the favorites, and Mensah himself carries real odds after his own performance against Stanford. Toney will need to sustain Friday's pace against ACC competition for months, and Mensah's continued success at quarterback could just as easily pull Heisman attention toward himself instead of his top target. One opening night, however record-breaking, is a start and nothing more.