The five nominees of the 77th Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy Award have been released.

The official five candidates of the most prestigious award in college football were announced by ESPN on Monday.

Montee Ball, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Tyrann Mathieu and Trent Richardson are the official finalists.

As expected, the athletes who made the prestigious list performed exceedingly well throughout the season.

This past year cornerback Tyrann Mathieu of Louisiana State University (LSU) had five forced fumbles, 71 tackles, two interceptions and now stands to be the second LSU player to win the Heisman according to Heisman.com.

Mathieu is the only cornerback of this year’s finalists but there are several different running backs.

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Alabama running back Trent Richardson had 20 touchdowns and rushed for 1,583 yards over the season.

The last Alabama running back to win the Heisman was Mark Ingram, Jr. in 2009.

Wisconsin’s Montee Ball is currently the leading running back in collegiate football with 1,759 rushing yards as well as 32 rushing touchdowns, according to ESPN.

However the quarterbacks on this year’s list thicken the tension by presenting some pretty heavy favoritism.

Quarterback Robert Griffin III is the first ever Baylor player to ever be in the Heisman running, according to the Huffington Post.

Heisman.com reports that Griffin is also ranked second in the nation after having passed for 3,998 yards and 36 touchdowns this past season.

Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck has been repeatedly called the “overwhelming favorite.”

This past season Luck passed for 3,170 yards, had 35 touchdowns and is the only returning finalist, according to the Los Angeles Times.

With such stiff competition at hand, this year’s Heisman Awards Ceremony is sure to be a suspenseful one.

The ceremony will take place this Saturday.