Thursday Thoughts: Can Kamario Taylor win the Heisman? What is the Big Ten doing?
By Adam Spencer
Published:
We’re already heading into Week 3 of the 2026 season, which is wild. Time flies when you’re having fun.
And this weekend is sure to be one of the most fun yet (unless you’re a Big Ten fan, more on that later). Ole Miss hosts Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers. Florida and Auburn take center stage. LaNorris Sellers and Kamario Taylor go head-to-head in a battle of 2 of the SEC’s hottest QBs.
There’s a lot to like in Week 3, so let’s discuss a few things I have my eyes on as we approach the weekend’s action:
1. It’s a shame Florida-Auburn is on at the same time as LSU-Ole Miss
In this era of multiple TVs, quad-box viewing and more, watching 2 college football games at the same time has never been easier.
But still…
I wish Florida vs. Auburn (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) and LSU vs. Ole Miss (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) weren’t going head-to-head with each other.
With all due respect to Georgia at Arkansas, that game probably doesn’t need to be featured in the noon ET slot on ABC. Based on all the whining he did about it in the offseason, Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek would probably happily move to a later kickoff.
Jon Sumrall and Alex Golesh both get their SEC careers started in this matchup at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Both enter 2-0. The winner will have plenty of momentum moving forward while the loser will have to scramble to not let this loss wreck the rest of their season.
It’d be nice to have the sound on for that game for longer than half an hour before I switch over to the LSU-Ole Miss audio. No way I’m missing any of that atmosphere in Oxford.
2. How many current SEC QBs will be first-round NFL Draft picks?
The SEC is deep at the QB position. Really deep. Just check out Saturday Down South writer Ethan Stone’s latest SEC QB power rankings and you’ll find several guys who would be worthy of top-5 spots in other conferences.
So how many of those guys could end up going in the first round of the next handful of NFL Drafts? I’m thinking a maximum of 11.
Tennessee‘s Faizon Brandon and Vanderbilt‘s Jared Curtis both have the 5-star pedigree, but they won’t be eligible until the 2029 NFL Draft, so keep an eye on them.
Another guy who won’t be eligible until the 2028 NFL Draft is this year’s early-season darling — Kamario Taylor of Mississippi State. He has all the arm strength, size and athleticism NFL teams salivate over. Keelon Russell of Alabama is also a guy to keep an eye on in the 2028 draft class.
That’s 4 potential first-round QB picks and we haven’t even gotten to the guys eligible this year. Let’s go ahead and put Texas star Arch Manning as a lock, even if he’s not currently the best QB in the conference. His last name alone will get someone to take a chance on him.
Trinidad Chambliss of Ole Miss is playing his way into the Round 1 discussion (as well as the Heisman Trophy picture). Gunner Stockton of Georgia has been amazing so far, even if he hasn’t played much real competition yet. South Carolina‘s LaNorris Sellers will also likely be a first-round pick with a strong season.
LSU’s Sam Leavitt was getting first-round buzz before the season. While that has cooled off now, don’t count him out if he fixes his interception woes. Then you have your trio of dark-horses in Austin Simmons (Mizzou), Aaron Philo (Florida) and Marcel Reed (Texas A&M). Any of those 3 could see their draft stock take off.
Heck, we didn’t think guys like Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, Fernando Mendoza or Cam Ward would be the No. 1 overall picks in their draft classes until they had their meteoric rises.
3. What does Kamario Taylor need to do to win the Heisman this year?
Kamario Taylor is an incredible quarterback. He’s looked like one of the best players in all of college football this year through 2 games. He absolutely demolished Minnesota in Week 2, throwing for 227 yards and 3 touchdowns to go with 86 rushing yards.
For the season, he has 7 passing touchdowns, 1 rushing touchdown, 581 pass yards, 145 rush yards, 0 interceptions, 1 lost fumble and only 1 sack taken. That’s insane.
But can he win the Heisman?
Almost certainly not.
Why, you ask? Well, I don’t see the Bulldogs getting to 9 wins. That’s basically the bare minimum a Heisman winner needs to claim the sport’s most-prestigious trophy.
Since 2000, there have been 5 times a Heisman winner has come from a team with fewer than 10 wins in the regular season. Those 5 players were:
- Tim Tebow, QB, Florida (2007)
- Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor (2011)
- Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville (2016)
- Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU (2023)
- Travis Hunter, WR/CB, Colorado (2024)
All 5 of those guys played on teams that went 9-3 in the regular season. So Taylor needs to get the Bulldogs to 9 wins. Minimum.
That means this weekend’s game at South Carolina and next weekend’s game against Mizzou are must-wins. The month of October is absolutely brutal for Taylor and his squad. Look at this October slate:
- Oct. 3 — vs. Alabama
- Oct. 10 — OFF
- Oct. 17 — at LSU
- Oct. 24 — vs. Oklahoma
- Oct. 31 — at Texas
Yikes.
The (very slim) path for Taylor to get to New York City would be to win the next 2 games, upset Oklahoma at home on Oct. 24 and then win out in November (vs. Vanderbilt, vs. Auburn, vs. Tennessee Tech and at Ole Miss for the Egg Bowl). Easier said than done, but if Taylor keeps playing the way he’s played the last 2 weeks, anything is possible.
4. What is the Big Ten doing?
Big Ten coaches and fans love to criticize the SEC any time an SEC team plays a lower-level FBS or FCS school. But then the Big Ten goes out and puts this Week 3 schedule together:
I’m as big of a college football fan as there is, and I don’t want to watch a single second of that slate. I’ll probably end up watching some of the Purdue-UCLA game, but that’s more because of the time slot it’s in than anything worthwhile that’ll happen in that matchup.
I don’t want to hear a single peep from anyone from the Big Ten about the SEC’s schedule for the rest of the decade.
5. Northwestern’s unusual bye week
There were 3 Power 4 teams on byes in Week 2. Those teams were Florida State, Stanford and… Northwestern.
Florida State and Stanford both played in Week 0, so they have additional bye weeks coming later in the year. Northwestern, however, used its only bye of 2026 in Week 2. Was the game against South Dakota State really that taxing?
I know Northwestern has a new stadium opening up later this year, so perhaps the Wildcats wanted to ensure it had an extra game in their new digs?
Either way, that’s going to be rough on the players who now have to play games each of the next 11 weeks without a rest.
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Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
