Having two Heisman candidates is a good problem.
The school made it official this week. The campaign is on for both Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney, and the rollout was perfect. The UM creative team cut a sizzle reel, built a Mensah graphic around what national voices like Louis Riddick and Todd McShay have been saying about him, and gave Toney his own graphic stamped "Backed by the city."
Cam Ghorbi and that crew have a tricky job now: You have to sell two guys at once without one eating into the other.
The good news is there's zero drama behind the scenes. These two have been boys since day one. Different ages, different hometowns, and the moms get along great. If there's friction in this race, it's coming from the outside.
Toney leads the country with 66 catches. He's third in yards (952) and third in touchdowns (11), and he leads the nation with 18 plays of 20-plus yards.
People try to argue they're stat padding in the fourth quarter. They barely played in the fourth quarter Saturday and Toney has sat out multiple halves this season.
His reasoning: Mensah would still be a Heisman candidate without Toney, but he wouldn't have these numbers.
"I don't think we'd be undefeated at this point. Our passing offense just runs through Malachi Toney."
I went back to Xavier Restrepo's game log from the Cam Ward year to check. Restrepo was a beast, averaging better than 16 yards a catch, with big days against Duke, Syracuse and Cal. But he never had a double-digit catch game that year, and he finished with 69 catches. Toney is at 66 before November.
Nobody at Miami has done it at this level.
Mike usually scoffs at the "splitting the vote" argument because the Heisman is a points system. With Jeremiah Smith in the race, though, the second and third-place votes are going to decide this.
There's one piece of this our fan base actually controls. The official Heisman fan vote counts. Most people treat that tile as engagement bait, but points are assigned to it. You can vote every day. Right now Ole Miss fans are having a field day with it, and Oregon State fans have mobilized better than ours. Historically, we're lazy about this stuff.
Don't be lazy about this.
Notre Dame on November 7 might matter more for the Heisman than it does for our playoff path, assuming both teams stay clean until then. If Mensah and Toney show out against CJ Carr on that stage, they get elevated.
I think we've been holding back Mali Cat for that game. Outside the two-point conversion against FSU, how much of it have we really seen? We're the top scoring offense in the country by a lot. We don't need to show it. Mike thinks Shannon Dawson did the same thing last year.
What Toney needs is one signature game where he runs one in, throws one, catches one and returns a punt. I couldn't find anyone who's done all four in a single game. On a day he starts fast, he could.
Watch the full show below, subscribe, and then go vote every day for both our guys.
The school made it official this week. The campaign is on for both Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney, and the rollout was perfect. The UM creative team cut a sizzle reel, built a Mensah graphic around what national voices like Louis Riddick and Todd McShay have been saying about him, and gave Toney his own graphic stamped "Backed by the city."
Cam Ghorbi and that crew have a tricky job now: You have to sell two guys at once without one eating into the other.
The good news is there's zero drama behind the scenes. These two have been boys since day one. Different ages, different hometowns, and the moms get along great. If there's friction in this race, it's coming from the outside.
The numbers are absurd
Mensah is completing 81.4 percent of his passes, first in the country. He's averaging 10.5 yards per attempt, has 22 touchdowns and his passing efficiency rating sits at 204.55. That's first in the nation by roughly 20 points, and it's knocking on the door of Jayden Daniels' all-time record.Toney leads the country with 66 catches. He's third in yards (952) and third in touchdowns (11), and he leads the nation with 18 plays of 20-plus yards.
People try to argue they're stat padding in the fourth quarter. They barely played in the fourth quarter Saturday and Toney has sat out multiple halves this season.
The ballot
Mike filled out his fan ballot Tuesday morning. Toney first. Mensah second. Jeremiah Smith third.His reasoning: Mensah would still be a Heisman candidate without Toney, but he wouldn't have these numbers.
"I don't think we'd be undefeated at this point. Our passing offense just runs through Malachi Toney."
I went back to Xavier Restrepo's game log from the Cam Ward year to check. Restrepo was a beast, averaging better than 16 yards a catch, with big days against Duke, Syracuse and Cal. But he never had a double-digit catch game that year, and he finished with 69 catches. Toney is at 66 before November.
Nobody at Miami has done it at this level.
The split
Ken Dorsey and Willis McGahee both went up in 2002, and neither came home with it.Mike usually scoffs at the "splitting the vote" argument because the Heisman is a points system. With Jeremiah Smith in the race, though, the second and third-place votes are going to decide this.
There's one piece of this our fan base actually controls. The official Heisman fan vote counts. Most people treat that tile as engagement bait, but points are assigned to it. You can vote every day. Right now Ole Miss fans are having a field day with it, and Oregon State fans have mobilized better than ours. Historically, we're lazy about this stuff.
Don't be lazy about this.
November 7 decides it
None of this gets settled in October, Mike made the point that John Mateer was the Heisman leader at this point last year.Notre Dame on November 7 might matter more for the Heisman than it does for our playoff path, assuming both teams stay clean until then. If Mensah and Toney show out against CJ Carr on that stage, they get elevated.
I think we've been holding back Mali Cat for that game. Outside the two-point conversion against FSU, how much of it have we really seen? We're the top scoring offense in the country by a lot. We don't need to show it. Mike thinks Shannon Dawson did the same thing last year.
What Toney needs is one signature game where he runs one in, throws one, catches one and returns a punt. I couldn't find anyone who's done all four in a single game. On a day he starts fast, he could.
Watch the full show below, subscribe, and then go vote every day for both our guys.
