The Knight Report staff reveals Heisman Trophy ballots

The Knight Report’s Alec Crouthamel and myself (Richie O’Leary) are both fortunate enough to be official Heisman Trophy voters and now that the winner and final results were revealed, here’s a look at our ballots and the reasoning behind the choices we made.

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Richie O’Leary’s ballot

1. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
2. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana
3. Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame

After a solid season 2024 season at Vanderbilt, I’m not sure anyone expected the program to take the leap it did in 2025 and that was mostly because of the jump in play from quarterback Diego Pavia. Is a little bit too much off the field? Yes, but you can’t deny his play on the field, as he led Vanderbilt to a program record 10 win regular season.

Pavia finished the year throwing for 3,192 yards, 27 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while connecting on 71.2% of his passes. He also ran the ball 152 times for 826 rushing yards and nine more scores. He was second in all of FBS in total yards per game, averaging 334.8 per game. The only player ahead of him was USF’s Byrum Brown. While it’s still a team sport, without Pavia this team was not doing what it did this season.

All that being said, Mendoza had one hell of a year for the Hoosiers, throwing for 2,980 yards, and a FBS high 33-touchdowns. He also had several clutch moments for Indiana, including a massive win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game, where he made play after play to secure the win against the nation’s top defense. However his numbers just weren’t good enough to me to call him the top player in college football. While he put up one heck of a fight, it wasn’t enough unseat Pavia in my eyes.

Last but not least, is Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. The Fighting Irish have received some heat lately for their schedule and responses on social media for being left out of the College Football Playoff, but Love was the backbone of this year’s Irish squad. He was a human highlight reel, rushing for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns on just 199 carries and that was good enough for my third place Heisman vote.

Alec Crouthamel’s ballot

1. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
2. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana
3. Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State

Pavia earned my Heisman vote this year as the top floor-raiser among the nation’s best players this year. He certainly had the stats to back it up, as well.

Vanderbilt was notably not projected to follow up on its breakout 7-6 2024 campaign, even with the star quarterback returning. But the Commodores took it a step further at 10-3, led by Pavia’s top-15 marks in passing yards (3,192) and QB rushing yards (826), while also tying for third in total touchdowns (36). Vanderbilt’s offense was built around Pavia, and for the second straight year, he delivered, looking even better in 2025 than his viral 2024 campaign, with school records for his individual play, and the 14th-ranked Commodores’ 10-2 record. For all of those reasons, he got my — extremely close — first-place vote.

Speaking of following up a breakout campaign, Mendoza entered the Big Ten and led the top-ranked Hoosiers to an undefeated 13-0 start, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

Mendoza’s counting stats — while not at all shabby with 2,980 yards and a nation-leading 33 passing touchdowns — may not even jump off the page, thanks to the fact that the Hoosiers often benched Mendoza in the fourth quarters of games because the Hoosiers consistently blew the doors off of their opposition. His brother, Alberto, played in seven games this year.

Even on rare occasions when his team played close games, Mendoza stepped up. He fired countless confident throws in the Big Ten Championship Game against the fortress known as Ohio State‘s defense, including a dagger on a critical third down to help run the clock out. He led a breathtaking game-winning drive in Happy Valley against Penn State, capped by one of the best throws, catches, and referee calls of the year.

Ultimately, the factor that gave Pavia the edge over Mendoza for me was the talent level surrounding Mendoza. The offense features two star wideouts in Elijah Saratt and Omar Cooper Jr., a proven Big Ten running back in Roman Hemby, and an offensive line recently named a finalist for the Joe Moore Award.

Indiana’s offense was built to succeed, and while Mendoza executed it to perfection, Pavia did more — in my opinion — with a team built around him.

Third place was also quite a close battle between Smith — who ultimately got the nod — Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, and Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. Rodriguez’ story is among the best in college football, and the Red Raiders’ defensive fortitude this year was spurred on by the ferocity of Rodriguez and his eye-popping stats, as well as a monster defensive line.

Love was the best running back in the country, and the Fighting Irish’s offense flowed through him plenty to excellent results. But in the end, Smith was my choice for third place because even with Carnell Tate next to him, defenses tried — and failed — to gameplan around him, and still ended up with 80 receptions and over 1,000 yards. I also got to see firsthand how much the passing game struggled when Smith and Tate were not on the field against Rutgers.

In my process, the top two cleared themselves from the rest of the field for the Heisman, and the remaining three guys had great arguments to make the ballot, but my tossing-and-turning thinking ended with the superstar sophomore in third.