Continuing with our weekly voting on Maxwell Pundit. Here are my 5 choices for the MVP from week 5:

Troy Smith, QB, Ohio St.: Another spectacular performance from probably the leading Heisman candidate in the nation. Mr. Smith goes on the road for the second biggest test of the Buckeyes' season, and calmly dismantled the scrappy Hawkeyes with 4TDs. Yeah he is money.

Mario Manningham, WR, Michigan: Probably my favorite player (besides the guys on our roster of course) of this college football season. Manningham had a huge night blistering yet another Big-10 defense (Minnesota) for 131 yds (26.2 per catch) and a TD. The kid is only a sophomore and is on pace for a 1000 yards, 17 TD season.  Michigan v. OSU tilt could shape us as Maxwell award showdown between Troy v. Mario:


Terrance Austin -please watch the Mario clips

Dennis Dixon, QB, Oregon: DD is not getting lot of national love yet. But right now IMHO he may be the quarterback in the Pac-10 (over Booty and Longshore). DD sparked the Ducks' blowout over (looking increasingly hapless and a sure win for Dorrell) the Devils this past weekend, throwing for 3 TDs, and over 200 yards, completing 60 percent of his passes. He is emerging the heart and soul of a good Ducks team, throwing for 6 TDs, and running for couple this season. Definitely one of the leading candidates for the Pac-10 offensive MVP this season.

Steve Slaton, RB, West Virginia: Slaton had a bye this past weekend. I don't see any reason to bump him off this list, despite what Calvin Johnson (WR) is doing at Georgia Tech.

Adrian Peterson, RB, OU: See Steve Slaton.

Other candidates to keep an eye on as the season began to come into focus:

Chris Leak, QB, Florida (still looks inconsistent but if he keeps winning ...)
John David Booty, QB, Southern Cal
Brady Quinn, QB, Notre Dame
Marshawn Lynch, RB, Cal
Bruce Davis, DE, UCLA (if the Bruin defense stays in the top-5 by the end of the season)

As always just let me know is there someone else we should keeping eye on. As I mentioned last week as the season develops some more the focus will be shifting towards aggregate performances instead of just looking at what players are doing week to week.

GO BRUINS.