Heisman hopefuls: Week 10

Part of being a Heisman candidate is being able to show up in the big moments, and Week 10 allowed some of the nation’s biggest stars to shine. With their teams up against the wall, some of these players led the way for their squads, coming up clutch to get the win to improve their school’s record and keep their trophy hopes alive.

The College Football Playoff is starting to take shape, but there is still plenty of opportunities for players to improve or slip before the regular season ends. Here are five players who are cementing their status as the country's best.

Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama Crimson Tide 

Forcing Tagovailoa to play his first fourth-quarter snap may have been a moral victory for the LSU Tigers, but it doesn’t mean much, as he still lit them up. The southpaw slinger didn’t let his first interception of the year derail his Heisman Trophy hopes, finishing the game with two passing tosses and throwing for nearly 295 yards. He also added an impressive 44-yard touchdown run, where he outran the entire Tiger defense despite playing with an injured knee.

The native Hawaiian now has an extremely poor 27:1 touchdown to interception ratio. Despite such a monumental hit to his resume, he remains the favorite to win the Heisman in a month.

Kyler Murray, Oklahoma Sooners 

Murray recovered from a very un-Murray start to finish with a win and another feather in his Heisman cap. The junior passer kicked off the game with two interceptions in his first two drives but finished with 360 yards and three touchdowns. He also added a season-high 100 yards on the ground and a rushing score before his day was done. Murray became the Sooners’ first quarterback with consecutive 350-yard passing games since Landry Jones did it in 2012, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

Murray will get a chance to really ingratiate himself to Heisman voters if he can down rival Oklahoma State in style in the Bedlam series next week.

Travis Etienne, Clemson Tigers 

Welcome back to the party, Etienne. After two subpar weeks gaining ground, the sophomore running back racked up 153 rushing yards and added a touchdown to help the Tigers score 77 points against the hapless Louisville Cardinals. He now leads the ACC in rushing yards and is second in the country with 15 rushing scores.

The Heisman Trophy is usually a quarterback’s award, but Etienne gives running backs a legit candidate to snatch it this year.

Will Grier, West Virginia Mountaineers 

Two weeks after what might have been a devastating loss to Iowa State, Grier proved he’s more than up to the task of guiding West Virginia to a showdown with Oklahoma for the Big 12 Championship. Facing traditional powerhouse Texas, the senior quarterback notched 346 yards and three touchdowns by the end of the game. He also added a game-winning two-point conversion rush that downed the Longhorns with no time remaining.

The North Carolina-born star is a bit overlooked, with bigger names like Kyler Murray and Tagovailoa garnering a lot of the national attention. But if you stack his numbers against the other candidates, he stands out just as well as any of those quarterbacks.

Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State Buckeyes 

It wasn’t pretty, but even positive ugly games are good games for Heisman candidates. The Buckeyes’ sophomore quarterback guided the team to a much-needed win after the squad lost two weeks ago to Purdue, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns to beat a stingy Nebraska team. He did throw an interception, but it was only his sixth for the year and he has 30 passing scores on the season.

He has a little ground to make up if he wants to be a hot name in December, but his body of work for the overall season has been nothing short of impressive.