With Saturday’s win over Auburn, Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott finds himself in the middle of the national spotlight with talks of him being the current frontrunner to take home the Heisman Trophy come December. In his first six games, Prescott has completed 96 of his 156 passes for a total of 1,478 yards, has a completion percentage of 61.5 percent and, to go along with that, he has a 14:4 touchdowns to interception ratio. On the ground, Prescott has rushed 106 times for 576 total yards and has crossed the goal line eight times on the season. The stats are very impressive as a whole through six games, but  how does he line up compared to another noteworthy SEC Heisman-winning quarterback through six games?
During Tim Tebow’s sophomore season at Florida, he went 97-148 for 1,455 yards through the air and 13 touchdowns to go with his 500 total rushing yards through his first six games of the 2007 Heisman winning campaign.  Not only has Prescott thrown for more yards than Tebow did at this stage, but he has also out-gained him on the ground. While Tebow boasts the better completion percentage through the first six games of his season, Prescott ties Tebow in the total touchdown category, as they both accounted for 22 touchdown through six games. 
As the stats paint the picture of a serious Heisman contender, Prescott said he is honored to be in the discussion, but knows he has a lot more work to do if he is going to improve going forward, and in the end, the team success is what really matters.   
“It doesn’t really mean all that much. Like I said tonight, I didn’t play that great of a game at all and people are going to talk like it was a great game,” he said. “To me, it was one of my worst games of the season, so all the talk doesn’t mean much. We just got to keep getting this team better and keep winning.”
While Prescott focuses his energy on the rest of the SEC slate, several members of the media and even Vegas look at him as the front-runner at this very moment. Prescott’s betting odds of taking home the Heisman are currently set at 2/1, making him Vegas’s favorite through six games of the season. The nation as a whole has seemed to jump on Prescott’s Heisman bandwagon as well. After Saturday’s game, Prescott ranks first on both Bleacher Reports and ESPN’s Heisman favorite list, and college football fans all throughout the country are starting to take notice daily of the special player that currently resides in a Mississippi State uniform.
Brandon Speck of FOX Sports analyzed Prescott’s Heisman chances by saying there’s a lot of opportunity left for him to stamp his case and take home the prize. 
“If he leads Mississippi State to the promised land of Atlanta for the (SEC) title game or maybe even, hold your breath, a spot in the playoff four, then his case is strong,” Speck said. “But the road is long and winding. And as good as Prescott has been through six games, he has six more to either finish the statement or give voters plenty of reasons to question his quest, by default or not.”
Outside of Prescott, the list of Heisman hopefuls at this moment comes down to four other players. Of these four, last week’s favorite Todd Gurley is not included as he currently is indefinitely  suspended. If Gurley ends up being suspended for the rest of the season, that will certainly bolster Prescott’s chances, as Gurley was seen as the favorite coming into this season.
Maybe the only player giving Prescott the most competition is Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty. Through his first half of the season he is 101 of 178 for 1,534 and 15 touchdown passes.  He really had a coming party against top-10 opponent TCU on Saturday when he threw for 510 yards and six touchdowns to complete the comeback and remain unbeaten for the season. With tough games still left against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State, he will have plenty of opportunities to show Heisman voters what he is really made of. If Prescott slips up in the next couple of games, look for Petty to be there to grab the limelight.
Another player worthy of national recognition is Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon, who has amassed 1,046 yards on the ground on 132 total carries to give him an average 7.9 yards per carry.  He also has 14 total touchdowns, almost all of which have come on the ground.  He makes his name on the ground game and doesn’t do much, if any, damage receiving the ball in the air as he only has six total receptions on the season for 27 yards.  One thing that could hurt Gordon’s chances going forward is the fact Wisconsin might lose a couple more game this season, making the perception harder for voters to grasp his overall worth to the team.  He does have six more games against Big Ten competition, and if he keeps on his current pace, he should expect to receive an invite to New York in the upcoming months. 
Last year’s winner Jameis Winston will face a battle in terms of repeating as the Heisman winner thanks to his off-the-field behavior earlier this season, and if reports over the weekend are true regarding university student conduct violations, he could have even more negative consequences to deal with in the weeks to come. Heisman voters take character to mean a lot in the overall equation on picking the Heisman winner. With that being the case, Winston might be at the bottom of the list of the five at this very moment. While his numbers are alright thus far this season, his candidacy will also suffer from the fact Florida State’s schedule outside of top-10 foe Notre Dame is one of the weakest in the country. If Winston doesn’t perform on a high level next week at home to Notre Dame or his team loses that game, it might take Winston out of the equation.
One other name to note is Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, who had a very nice showing on Saturday against UCLA, where he finished with 210 yards passing with two touchdowns. He also gashed the UCLA defense for 75 yards on the ground and added two rushing touchdowns. While Mariota’s chances took a hit early on with the loss against Arizona, he is having a spectacular season as a whole. He has thrown for 1,621 yards and 17 touchdowns to go along with no interceptions on the season. He adds 290 yards rushing for five touchdowns to his season statistic list, making him very much a dual threat for Oregon. If Petty and Prescott stumble at all and Mariota continues on his highly-efficient pace going forward, he could very well throw his name back into serious consideration if he can lead Oregon to wins in the rest of their Pac-12 games.  
With half of the season left to play, head coach Dan Mullen addressed his quarterback’s chances of winning the Heisman after Saturday’s game against Auburn and said he still thinks Prescott is in the thick of the chase. 
“He tried to get out of the mix today by throwing a couple of picks,” Mullen said. “He scored three touchdowns so he put himself back in it.”
Prescott still has two top-10 match ups left on the road against Alabama and Ole Miss and what could be a tough game against Arkansas in a couple of weeks as well. The opportunity is there for him have his Heisman moment.