Two clear favorites emerge atop college football Heisman Trophy rankings

After impressive week 9 performances, a couple of players have grabbed the lead atop the race for the Heisman Trophy. Solid performances for top teams led a pair of players ahead of an impressive field of candidates. While neither Ty Simpson of Alabama or Fernando Mendoza of Indiana were among the top preseason favorites, in leading their respective teams toward the College Football Playoff, both quarterbacks have been nearly flawless.

With Week 9 wins, Simpson and Mendoza claimed a neck-and-neck battle atop the race according to SI' columnist Blake Silverman. With Ohio State QB Julian Sayin off in Week 9 and outstanding SEC passers Marcel Reed and Diego Pavia putting up so-so stat lines, the top QBs remained steady ahead of that pack.

Simpson's Story

Simpson took over for Jalen Milroe in Kalen DeBoer's second season at Alabama. He had to lead a late rally for Alabama to climb to 7-1 on the season. His 24-for-43 passing represented his lowest completion percentage since the Week 1 upset loss to Florida State. But Simpson led the fourth quarter drive to win the game over a sturdy South Carolina defense. Incidentally, Simpson had 253 yards and two touchdowns, exactly the same line as the week before, and one yard different from his Week 1 performance.

Simpson has completed almost 68% of his throws for 2,184 yards and 20 touchdowns against a single interception in 261 passing attempts. He was brilliant in leading Alabama to wins over four consecutive ranked foes and has the Tide up to a 92.4% chance at the College Football Playoff, per ESPN's latest FPI numbers.

Mendoza's Mark

Mendoza had a few more style points in an easy 56-6 win over UCLA. He threw for just 168 yards, but needed just 22 pass attempts and threw for three scores with another touchdown on the ground. The 168 passing yards was a season-low, but then so was 22 passing attempts in a blowout in which Mendoza eventually handed off the QB role to his brother.

For the season, Mendoza is connecting on just under 73% of his passes for 1,923 yards and 24 touchdowns against three interceptions. He has had four games of over 10 yards per pass attempt, with three coming in Big Ten play and also has had four games with at least four touchdowns.

Indiana now leads the FPI ranking with a 96.8% chance at the CFP, which would be a second straight playoff season for an IU team that had never won 10 games in a season until last year. A season ago, Kurtis Rourke led the IU offense, but the California transfer has done even better in an 8-0 start.