College football experts were calling the Heisman Trophy race a battle between three of college football’s most explosive quarterbacks at the beginning of the 2009 season, but injuries to key players and the emergence of low key candidates has November’s list of possible winners looking much different than preseason projections.

Just a few weeks into the season, Sam Bradford, Oklahoma’s quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner, was sidelined with an injury that ended his campaign for a repeat. Along with Bradford’s failure to even contend, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow, quarterbacks of Texas and Florida respectively, have not had the years most projected, leaving the candidate field open for a few new guys.

Alabama sophomore running back Mark Ingram has capitalized on the preseason favorites’ mediocrity. Gene Menez, the Heisman Watch columnist for Sports Illustrated, currently has Ingram ranked first in his Heisman projection poll.

“In four games against ranked opponents he has averaged 178 rushing yards,” Menez wrote. “That’s what makes him the Heisman leader.”

Menez also has a few other emergent players at the top of his projections board. Case Keenum, quarterback for the University of Houston, has thrown for nearly 4,000 yards this year.

“You can make the case that no player has been as clutch this season as Keenum,” Menez wrote.

Despite the emergence of players like Ingram and Keenum in the Heisman race, high profile players like Tebow and McCoy are still expected to be Heisman Trophy finalists.

Kelly Whiteside of USA Today still thinks Tebow is first in line for the trophy.

“It’s the 2007 Heisman winner’s trophy to lose if Tebow doesn’t continue to try to do too much and make costly mistakes as a result,” Whiteside wrote.

Like Whiteside, Menez believes the Tebow and McCoy will likely make a trip to New York for the Heisman presentation, but not necessarily because they deserve the recognition.

“Both are great players and terrific ambassadors of the sport,” Menez wrote. “But, based on 2009 results alone, neither have been the nation’s ‘most outstanding player’.”

Menez lists many unheralded players such as Texas wide receiver Jordan Shipley and Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh on his list of Heisman hopefuls because of the work they have done this season, not because of their high profiles.

McCoy and Tebow seem to get the benefit of the doubt nationally,” Menez wrote. “Could either McCoy or Tebow still win the Heisman? The answer is undoubtedly yes, but it will be hard earning my vote.”

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