With Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza taking home the 2025 Heisman Trophy, college football fans have already begun to speculate about who could be the 2026 recipient of the sports’s most prestigious individual award.
On Sunday morning, ESPN released its way-too-early look at next year’s Heisman race, and a notable SEC signal-caller cracked the list of 15.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach included Texas A&M‘s Marcel Reed on his watchlist, applauding the sophomore’s dual-threat ability.
Reed announced this week that he plans to stay at Texas A&M next season, which is great news for the No. 7 Aggies. He was a threat with the ball in his hands, throwing for 2,932 yards with 25 touchdowns and running for 466 yards with six scores.
But Schlabach did mention that if Reed is to take home the Heisman in 2026, he will need to address the turnover woes that plagued him for much of this season.
His decision-making needs to continue to improve, so he can cut down on his 10 interceptions.
Reed completed 61.8% of his passes for 2,932 yards while also rushing for 466 and accounting for 31 total touchdowns this fall. Of course, the Aggies’ signal-caller figures to only build on those numbers during the team’s upcoming College Football Playoff run.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
