MARLER: 2025 SEC Heisman favorites

By Chris Marler

The engraving of the 2024 Heisman is barely dry. Also, I’m not 100 percent sure how engravings work, so don’t fact check that. Regardless, it’s never too early to look ahead to some candidates for next year’s bronze stiff-arm. Here are my SEC Heisman favorites for 2025.

Top Five

Arch Manning, QB — Texas

Manning will almost certainly be the favorite heading into the season. He started two games in place of an injured Quinn Ewers and landed among the top eight Heisman odds. If Manning is as advertised, he will be in New York next December. Texas played the weakest schedule in the SEC this year and next year they get the same opponents in the SEC plus an opener against Ohio State on the national stage.

QB Garrett Nussmeier, QB — LSU

Nussmeier is going to put up great numbers. Period. LSU will always have weapons at wide receiver and they have done a tremendous job of stockpiling talent from the transfer portal for him to throw to.

The schedule could also help him on a potential Heisman campaign. LSU plays South Carolina, Ole Miss, Alabama and gets Clemson in a non-conference season opener. The biggest question for Nussmeier and this LSU offense will be if the offensive line can keep him upright. They led the SEC with only 15 sacks allowed in 2024, but lose four of their five starters.

QB LaNorris Sellers, QB — South Carolina

Sellers is a walking Heisman moment highlight reel. The improvement he made from the first half of the season to the last six games for the Gamecocks was unreal. After the loss to Ole Miss, Sellers finished the season with 19 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He also had at least 330 yards of total offense in four of his final five games, three of which were against ranked teams.

Sellers doesn’t get enough credit for his passing ability. In the second half of the season, he completed 68 percent of his passes and Carolina’s offense finished top five in the SEC in plays over 30 yards and No. 1 in the league in rushing plays over 20 yards.

DJ Lagway, QB — Florida 

Lagway hasn’t blown anyone away yet with his efficiency. He finished his first season with a 59.7 completion percentage and an 11-to-7 touchdown to interception ratio. Regardless, his big play ability and knack for creating explosive plays out of nothing was exceptional. His 10.3 yards per attempt was second best in the SEC this year and he finished with over 18 yards per attempt twice.

Jackson Arnold, QB — Auburn 

I hate how much I like the upside and value of Arnold going to Auburn. I admittedly laughed when I heard Auburn spent seven figures on a quarterback who was benched during the season and led one of the worst offenses in the entire Power Four. But, hear me out.

Arnold is one of the best quarterback prospects out of high school that we’ve seen in the last five years or so. He was a consensus five star and top ten player nationally. The Oklahoma offense was dreadful this year. But, how much of that deserves to be on Arnold?

The Sooners were without their top five wide receivers for nearly all of their conference games. That’s not an exaggeration. Their top five wide receivers were out for nearly all eight SEC games this year and nearly two-thirds of the season. He was also behind an offensive line that ranked 132nd nationally in sacks allowed with 46. That’s 13 more than they allowed in any season in the last nine years.

Arnold is going to have one of the best WR corps in America, and if he can stay clean behind his new offensive line he could be great.

Best of the Rest 

Dylan Sampson, RB — Tennessee

Nate Frazier, RB — Georgia

Ryan Williams, WR — Alabama

Marcel Reed, QB — Texas A&M

Nico Iamaleava, Quarterback Tennessee

All five players in my top five are quarterbacks, but that shouldn’t be a surprise since it has largely been a quarterback focused award with 12 of the last 15 winners. In fact, the initial betting odds a year ago had 20 quarterbacks listed before another position on the board.

Frazier and Sampson lead a handful of elite backs, but Ashton Jeanty just finished a historic season at running back and still lost the Heisman. Sampson finished the regular season with almost 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns and he didn’t even sniff an invite. Going heavy with quarterbacks makes the most sense.