Last week, college football fans got to enjoy their first weekend filled with football. Specifically, college football. In Week 1, viewers got to watch big upsets like Colorado defeating TCU and Duke besting Clemson. Not only that, but they got to get a better idea as to which players should be considered legitimate candidates to win the Heisman Trophy.
Week 2 gave fans another chance to evaluate the competition. Is Caleb Williams still the favorite to win the Heisman? Was Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders' Week 1 performance a fluke? How do the rankings look now after Quinn Ewers and the Texas Longhorns defeated Jalen Milroe and the Alabama Crimson Tide?
Without further ado, here is the Week 2 Heisman Power Rankings for the 2023 season.
Heisman Power Rankings 2023, Week 2 edition
With Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe having a rough game against Texas, he falls out of the Heisman Power Rankings. That means there needs to be a new name on that list. When looking across the nation, there is one player who is making quite a name for himself in Kansas State quarterback Will Howard.
Last week against South East Missouri State, Howard became the sixth player in Big 12 history to record a passing, rushing, and receiving touchdown in a game, per ESPN Stats and Info. This week, the Wildcats and Howard faced off against the Troy Trojans, a team that had won their previous 12 games.
Howard and Kansas State picked up the 42-13 victory to improve to 2-0 on the season. The quarterback threw for 250 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception while completing 21-of-32 pass attempts. Howard also picked up 33 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on eight carries. So, Howard had five total touchdowns in Week 2, bringing his season total to eight.
Next week, Howard and the Wildcats will take on the Missouri Tigers.
The Michigan Wolverines have a really easy stretch of games to start the season. With that, you expect quarterback J.J. McCarthy to put up some big numbers for the Wolverines. This week, he faced off against the UNVL Rebels, and shocker, he had a good showing.
McCarthy had just three incompletions in the game on 25 attempts, picking up a total of 278 passing yards and two passing touchdowns. One of his touchdowns was a 47-yarder to wide receiver Roman Wilson. The 47 carried significance, as McCarthy wrote that number on his hand in honor of his friend and high school teammate Ryan Keeler, who passed away this past February. Keeler had committed to play for UNLV.
McCarthy also picked up 38 rushing yards on his three carries in the game.
Next week, Michigan will play Bowling Green in what will be their last game without head coach Jim Harbaugh on the sideline, as his three-game suspension runs out.
What a hectic day for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. They had to wait nearly two hours for a lightning delay at the start of the second quarter at Carter-Finley Stadium, but coaches had to head to the concession stands to buy hot dogs and brats for the team, as there wasn't enough food in the visiting locker room. Despite those things, Notre Dame and quarterback Sam Hartman cruised to a 45-24 victory over the NC State Wolfpack.
Hartman completed 15-of-24 pass attempts for 286 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. This is the second four-passing touchdown game for Hartman. Not bad for the former Wake Forest quarterback, who appears to be just what the Fighting Irish were missing.
With Alabama's loss to Texas this week, Notre Dame will likely have a higher ranking. It should be another rather easy game for Notre Dame, as they take on Central Michigan.
Drake Maye and the North Carolina Tar Heels had a tough day in Week 2, as they had to take on the Appalachian State Mountaineers. This is the very team that scored a huge upset win over the Texas A&M Aggies in Week 2 last season. For the Tar Heels, they needed double overtime to stave off the Mountaineers.
North Carolina tied up the game at 34 points apiece in overtime on a 17-yard run by Omarion Hampton. Gaining possession in double overtime, Maye secured the victory with a 13-yard touchdown run. With that, the Tar Heels maintain their 2-0 record on the year.
Maye completed 21-of-30 pass attempts for 208 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero interceptions while picking up 57 rushing yards on 11 carries.
We'll see if Maye can light up the stat sheets next week when he faces the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Bo Nix falls just one spot in this week's rankings, as there was one quarterback who made quite the statement in Week 2. But that's not to say that Nix had a bad performance in Week 2.
The Oregon Ducks had a much tougher time than anticipated in Week 2, as they faced off against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. At one point, the Ducks were down 30-28 to Texas Tech but were able to take a late 31-30 lead on a 34-yard field goal by Camden Lewis. Nix helped the Ducks get into field goal range, leading the offense from their 20-yard line to Texas Tech's 18-yard line.
Nix made some great plays on Saturday. There was his huge 72-yard touchdown pass to Troy Franklin to tie the game up at 7-7 in the first quarter, to keeping his balance on his 13-yard run to pick up a huge first down.
Nix threw for 359 yards and two touchdowns while completing 32-of-44 pass attempts. Additionally, the quarterback ran for 46 yards on nine carries.
Next week, Nix gets to make a case to climb back up the rankings with a strong showing against Hawaii.
The biggest riser in the Heisman Power Rankings for Week 2 is none other than Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Last week, the Longhorns offense struggled early on against Rice but picked things up in the second half. With that, the pressure was on Ewers to have a better showing in arguably their biggest game of the year -- Week 2 on the road against Alabama. Ewers understood the assignment, and he thrived in the spotlight.
Ewers thrived throwing the ball downfield. The quarterback had two touchdown passes go longer than 30 yards. There was his 44-yard dime pass to Xavier Worthy in the end zone for the touchdown and the 39-yard touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 34-24. Sure enough, that last pass helped secure the victory for the Longhorns.
If you have a great performance and beat Alabama in the same game? You deserve to skyrocket up the rankings. Now, we wait and see if Ewers and Texas can carry this momentum throughout the season.
Last week, Travis Hunter of the Colorado Buffaloes showed why he was long-hyped as a generational talent. The defensive back and wide receiver played over 110 snaps on both sides of the line of scrimmage against the TCU Horned Frogs, and he was impactful throughout the game.
While he didn't put up the numbers like he did in Week 1, he still had a good showing against Nebraska. Hunter recorded three receptions for 73 yards, with his longest reception coming in at 40 yards. On defense, Hunter recorded four solo tackles and one defended pass.
As long as Hunter continues to make plays on both sides of the line of scrimmage, he will remain in the Top 4 of the Heisman rankings.
Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr. remains at the No. 3 spot after the second week of the college football season. Last week, the southpaw signal caller threw for 450 yards and five touchdowns in a decisive, 56-19 win over the Boise State Broncos. This week, Penix faced off against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Let's just say it went as well as you would expect for Washington.
Penix did throw his first interception on the season in the team's third drive of the game. right after they scored touchdowns in their first two drives. Besides that blemish on the stat sheet, Penix had a productive day at Husky Stadium. Penix completed 28-of-38 pass attempts for 409 yards and three touchdowns.
Next week, Penix will face off against undefeated Michigan State, who held Richmond and Central Michigan to under 250 yards of total offense. We'll see if the Spartans can contain Penix, or if the quarterback will be in for another huge week.
It was another big week for Shedeur Sanders. While he didn't match the 510 passing yards like he did the week prior against the TCU Horned Frogs, he still had a really good showing in Week 2 against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Despite a somewhat rough first half, Colorado's offense was able to get going and pull away with the 36-14 victory. Sanders completed 31-of-42 pass attempts for 393 yards and two touchdowns, while also picking up a touchdown on the run.
Sanders will look to help bring the Buffaloes to a 3-0 start to the year if they beat Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown next week.
Remaining in the No. 1 spot is Caleb Williams, who is looking to become the first player to ever win the Heisman in back-to-back seasons since former Ohio State running back Archie Griffin did so back in 1974 and 1975. With three games to his credit, Williams looks like the favorite, and showing no signs of regressing.
Williams and the USC Trojans took on the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday night. Let's just say that the quarterback and potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft made easy work of the football program. Again, Williams got to exit early on in the third quarter after bringing the Trojans to an insurmountable lead for the opposition.
The quarterback threw for 281 yards and three touchdowns while completing 22-of-25 attempts. Additionally, Williams had just one carry, which he took 21 yards to the house.
Just take a look at his 75-yard touchdown pass to Brendan Rice and a 19-yard touchdown to Dorian Singer.
Williams makes things look so easy on the football field. While some may scoff at the Patrick Mahomes comparisons, Williams is just an unreal playmaker that will leave you without words on a weekly basis when watching Trojans games.
USC will have next week off, but they will return on Sept. 23 to take on Arizona State. Even though Williams won't be playing, it will be hard to remove him from the No. 1 spot in the Heisman Power Rankings.
