Manning passed on the NFL draft after a 10-3 debut season as the starter, and it's easy to see why he wanted more. He threw for 3,163 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2025 but watched the Playoff from home — a finish that felt incomplete for a Texas team built to win it all. Now, entering year two as QB1 with the second-best Heisman odds in the country and a loaded supporting cast, the runway is clear. Anything short of a deep Playoff run will feel like a miss.

The biggest quarterback domino of the offseason landed in Baton Rouge. Leavitt left Arizona State — where he won a Big 12 title and reached the Playoff as a redshirt freshman — to join Kiffin's first LSU roster, bringing 4,513 career passing yards, 34 touchdowns, and legitimate dual-threat juice. Kiffin has made a career out of maximizing quarterbacks, and he's never had one arrive this decorated. If the fit clicks fast, LSU jumps straight into the national conversation.

All Toney did as a true freshman was lead the FBS in receptions (109) for 1,211 yards and 10 touchdowns while powering Miami to the national title game. Now he says he's faster, and he's paired with Cooper Barkate in what might be the best receiver room in America. Sophomore leaps from players this good tend to end with hardware — Toney is the rare non-quarterback with a real Heisman path.

When Kiffin bolted for LSU and took the running backs coach who recruited him, everyone assumed Lacy would follow. Instead, the nation's third-leading rusher — 1,464 yards and an SEC-best 23 total touchdowns, plus the first Doak Walker finalist nod in Ole Miss history — recommitted to Oxford. He's now the face of the post-Kiffin Rebels, and every carry against LSU this fall will carry a little extra weight.

The best defensive player in college football plays corner in South Bend. Moore went from Freshman All-American in 2024 to unanimous All-American in 2025, and ESPN ranks him the No. 1 defender in the sport entering this season. Shutdown corners rarely get watch-list billing, but Moore is the kind of player who erases half the field — and he's the anchor of a Notre Dame team with championship ambitions.

Simmons led the SEC with 12 sacks in 2025 and enters his third year as arguably the most disruptive pass rusher in the country. He's a preseason First-Team All-American, a near-lock top-of-the-draft prospect, and the reason Texas can win games even when the offense sputters. He and Manning give the Longhorns the rare combination of the sport's most-watched quarterback and its most feared defender.

Stewart turned down the portal frenzy and returned to Columbia for his true junior season — reportedly as one of the highest-paid players in the sport. With 56 tackles, 11 sacks, and six forced fumbles in two seasons, he's a chaos-creator with elite bend and a knack for the strip. His head-to-heads with Simmons for SEC sack supremacy will be appointment viewing.

No returning FBS passer has more career yards than Hoover's 9,629, and now the TCU transfer inherits the toughest act in the sport: replacing Fernando Mendoza in Bloomington. The 31-game starter once committed to Indiana in high school, so this is a homecoming of sorts — and a Maxwell Award watch-lister stepping into a program that's proven it can contend. If Hoover keeps the machine humming, Indiana stays in the Playoff picture.

The former No. 1 overall recruit had an up-and-down freshman year, then chose to stay in Ann Arbor through a coaching transition to Kyle Whittingham's new regime. A dedicated quarterbacks coach and a rebuilt offensive staff are designed to unlock him, and the raw tools — arm strength, size, mobility — were never in question. Underwood's sophomore trajectory will decide whether Michigan re-enters the national race or resets again.

The deepest sleeper on this list. Taylor takes over as QB1 in Starkville as a sophomore, and he's embraced what he calls "the privilege of pressure." Mississippi State's ceiling in 2026 rises or falls almost entirely on his development — and in a league where unknown quarterbacks become household names by October, Taylor is the breakout bet insiders keep circling.