Heisman Trophy: With one game left, it's Mariota vs. Gordon, Cooper a strong #3

The Heisman picture has definitely coalesced around Marcus Mariota and Melvin Gordon, in either order, as the final two contenders. But Amari Cooper's performance against Auburn has him in line for a strong finish.

Marcus Mariota might have the slight edge again after his 6 TD performance against Oregon State. Mariota went 19 of 25 for 367 yards and 4 touchdown passes and ran for 2 more touchdowns. More significantly, he has a crazy 36:2 TD:int ratio with 11 more rushing touchdowns (636 yards). That's a resume that's hard to ignore, even if Melvin Gordon makes it a tough choice.

Melvin Gordon ran for 151 yards in the win over Minnesota with 2 total touchdowns. That's not the kind of performance that normally would cause a drop in the rankings, and Gordon can be said to be #1a as his 2,260 yards and 26 touchdowns (+3 receiving) are Heisman-level for sure. He can definitely win with a Mariota stumble or another too-huge-to-be-ignored performance against Ohio State this coming weekend. No matter what happens, Gordon has been good enough to win in many previous years.

Amari Cooper was a distant #3 last week but he definitely closed the gap with possibly the best game of his career. Cooper had 13 catches for 224 yards and 3 touchdowns, and the Tide needed all of it to beat Auburn 55-44. It puts him over 1,500 yards for the season with 14 TDs. Can he win the Trophy? Maybe with a total collapse by the top two, in losses, while Cooper tops his performance from last week. But most likely he garners a whole lot of #3 votes and gets an invite to New York.

1. [up 1] Marcus Mariota, QB Oregon (11-1) beat Oregon St 47-19; 4 TD pass, 2 TD rush
2. [dn 1] Melvin Gordon, RB Wisconsin (10-2) beat Minnesota 34-24; 151 yards
3. Amari Cooper, WR Alabama (11-1) beat Auburn 55-44; 224 rec yards, 3 TDs
4. [up 1] JT Barrett, QB Ohio State (11-1) beat Michigan 42-28; 1 TD pass, 2 TD rush
5. [up 2] Trevone Boykin, QB TCU (10-1) beat Texas 48-10; 2 TD pass, 1 TD rush
6. [up 2] Bryce Petty, QB Baylor (10-1) beat Texas Tech 48-46; 2 TD pass, 1 rush

out:

• Dak Prescott, QB Miss. State (10-2) LOST to Ole Miss 1 TD pass, 1 TD rush
• Jameis Winston, QB FSU (12-0) beat Florida 24-19; 2 TD, 4 INT
• Ameer Abdullah, RB Nebraska (9-3) beat Iowa 37-34OT; 106 yards
• Kevin White, WR West Virginia
• Todd Gurley, RB Georgia
• Everett Golson, QB Notre Dame
• Kenny Hill, QB Texas A&M

At #4, up a spot, comes JT Barrett of Ohio State. Barrett was having a good game (3 TDs in the first 3 quarters) before he was injured and lost for the season, and though he won't win the Trophy now, he has a chance to finish in the top three and will probably get a New York invite. He'll mainly compete with Cooper for 3rd place votes, so his actual finish depends on how well the other contenders do this weekend. Barrett finishes the year with a 34:10 ratio and nearly 3,000 yards passing, and almost 1,000 rushing yards with 11 TDs.

Trevone Boykin of TCU has one more game to impress voters enough to earn a New York invite (usually from 3 to 6 players are invited). For the year Boykin has 3,254 passing yards, 26 TDs and 6 interceptions, with 598 rushing yards and 8 TDs. So his numbers are fairly similar to Barrett's, and his team is looking for a top 4 finish to get into the College Football Playoff.

Bryce Petty barely edges his way into our final six contestants, with a solid 25:5 ratio and 4 rushing TDs. But his numbers are so far down from last year (32:3, 14 rushing TDs) when he wasn't a finalist that it doesn't look like he's going to make it to New York. A huge game against Kansas State to (technically) win the Big Twelve title might do it, but Petty might not even play on Saturday as he suffered a concussion against Texas Tech.

Dropping out this week: Winston's INT total hard to ignore

Three more contenders drop out of consideration this week. Dak Prescott's Mississippi State Bulldogs lost their 2nd game of the season and so Prescott won't have another game to show his stuff. He ends a great regular season with 24 TDs and 10 interceptions, just 4 yards shy of 3,000 passing yards. Just as important were his 939 yards and 13 TDs on the ground.

Florida State's Jameis Winston completed another undefeated season at 12-0. The guy has never lost a college football game. That's pretty amazing, and if you would have told me FSU would go 12-0 and Winston wouldn't be in the top five Heisman candidates, I would have thought you were insane. But the Seminoles have been winning in spite of Winston's poor performance, as well as because of his good performance. Against Florida Winston threw 4 more interceptions, bringing his total for the year to 17 against 21 TDs. That's not Heisman-level at all, and it's a major reason why the team isn't dominant like last year when he had just 10 in 14 games (with 40 TDs). Winston has another hearing in the rape case ahead of the ACC final against Georgia Tech.

Ameer Abdullah had 106 yards in the overtime win at Iowa but long ago his Heisman hopes were null. He had a shot at being a finalist even a few weeks ago, but the Cornhuskers failed to reach the Big Ten championship game. Abdullah finished the year with over 1,500 yards.

Games this weekend: All contenders' teams are in championship games

Each contender's team is in a championship game, official or unofficial, but not all of the candidates will be playing:

• Marcus Mariota will lead Oregon against Arizona for the Pac-12 crown
• Melvin Gordon's Wisconsin takes on Ohio State for the Big Ten championship
• Amari Cooper will face Missouri as Alabama goes for the SEC title
• JT Barrett will be watching from the sidelines as Ohio State battles Wisconsin
• Trevone Boykin's TCU plays Iowa State; a win and a Baylor loss means the Horned Frogs technically win the tiebreaker for the Big Twelve title
• Bryce Petty's Baylor needs to beat Kansas State to win the Big Twelve, but he might not play. The league has also said they won't officially declare a champion, which is sort of a slap in the face to Baylor, but the Big Twelve doesn't want to hurt TCU's shot at finishing in the top 4.