With the college football season coming down the home stretch, fans and writers are looking for one player to break away from the pack in the race for college sports' most coveted award, the Heisman Trophy.
Purdue senior quarterback Kyle Orton seemed to be emerging as the front-runner after five weeks, but has gone from possibly the best player in the country to possibly the second-best quarterback on his team after being benched for sophomore Brandon Kirsch.
So who has the best chance to win the sprint to the finish line?
Adrian Peterson, freshman running back, Oklahoma
Peterson has probably been the most impressive player of late, but the fact that he is a freshman hurts his chances with voters. He has 210 carries for 1,278 yards and eight touchdowns in eight games.
Peterson has been breaking rookie records all season, including eight straight games of 100 or more rushing yards to begin his career. Last week he ran for 249 yards on 33 carries, including one touchdown.
Matt Leinart, junior quarterback, University of Southern California
Leinart has 153 completions in 243 attempts for 1,863 yards. He has thrown 18 touchdowns compared to just four interceptions and has also ran for three touchdowns in eight wins.
While his numbers are impressive, Leinart's statistics from last year were as good if not better. He has yet to throw for 300 yards this season, but is 20-1 in his two years at USC.
Jason White, senior quarterback, Oklahoma
Last year's Heisman Trophy winner is on pace for fairly similar statistics to those that he put up last year. He is 142-of-223 for 1,838 yards, including 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
Through eight games last season White had 1,998 yards, 25 touchdowns and four interceptions, and that was without Peterson. Peterson will hurt White's chances more than anything else.
Cedric Benson, senior running back, Texas
Benson has been quietly impressive this season, doing just what he has done in each of his four years as a Longhorn. He has surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the fourth straight season, with 1,297 yards-the most in the country-and 12 touchdowns on 219 carries this season. His worst performance came against Oklahoma where he had 92 yards, nearly 50 yards less than his next lowest total.
Last week Benson became just the 10th running back to accumulate 5,000 yards rushing. He is a sure-fire candidate for those writers who consistently vote based on career performance with 5,579 total yards and 60 total touchdowns in four years.
With Oklahoma State, Kansas and Texas A&M left on the schedule-teams he has done well against in the past-he has a chance to hook the Heisman yet.
Alex Smith, junior quarterback, Utah
Smith has led his non-BCS school into the top six in the BCS rankings. If they remain there, the Utes will be guaranteed a BCS bowl. However, the fact that he plays at Utah may keep writers from voting for him.
Nonetheless, he has 1,905 yards, 20 touchdowns and just two interceptions, garnering him a passer rating of 173.9. He also has 384 yards rushing and eight rushing touchdowns.
Braylon Edwards, senior wide receiver, Michigan
Edwards has 69 receptions for 995 yards and 11 touchdowns in nine games this season. He has 91 or more receiving yards in all but two games this year. Edwards is also a decent candidate for the career achievement voters. He has 3,168 career receiving yards and 35 touchdowns in the last three years at Michigan.
On a negative note, in the two games in which he did not accumulate at least 91 yards, he had 43 yards combined. But if he continues to perform like he did against Michigan State, when he had 189 yards and three touchdowns, he could garner a few Heisman votes.
But the race is still up for grabs. Any one of these players could wind up holding the trophy in New York. Players like Cal junior quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Auburn senior quarterback Jason Campbell, USC sophomore running back Reggie Bush or a variety of other players could toss their names into the mix before all is said and done.
