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. 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?
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