Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, Colorado's Travis Hunter, Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and Miami's Cam Ward were announced as the Heisman Trophy finalists on Monday night.

The Heisman has been given to the nation’s most outstanding college football player since 1935. This year’s winner will be announced Saturday in New York. The top four vote-getters determined by more than 900 voters are selected as finalists. The voting panel includes members of the media and former Heisman winners.

A look, in alphabetical order, at each of the finalist’s road to Manhattan.

Gabriel

Gabriel, who transferred from Oklahoma in the offseason, led unbeaten and top-ranked Oregon to the Big Ten championship in its first year in the league and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Gabriel averages 274 yards passing per game and has thrown for 28 touchdowns with six interceptions. His 73.2% completion rate is second in the nation. His 35 total touchdowns are tied for seventh nationally, and his career total of 187 is the highest in NCAA history.

He set the all-time Football Bowl Subdivision record for career quarterback starts with his 62nd in the Big Ten title game.

Hunter

Hunter, will go down as one of the great two-way players in history. His accomplishments harken those of Charles Woodson, the Michigan cornerback who in 1997 became the first Heisman winner who primarily played defense.

Woodson also spent time at receiver, but Hunter’s offensive production dwarfs his. Hunter was named All-Big 12 first-team receiver and earned honorable mention for offensive player of the year. He leads the Big 12 with 92 receptions and 14 receiving touchdowns and is second with 1,152 yards. His 21 receiving plays of 20-plus yards lead the nation.

He also is Big 12 defensive player of the year and a unanimous first-team defensive back after recording 31 tackles, tying for the Big 12 lead with 11 pass breakups and tying for second with four interceptions.

Jeanty

The junior running back has had one of the most productive seasons in college football history. His 2,497 yards rushing are the fourth-highest single-season total in the FBS, and his 192.1 yards per game lead the nation and are 58 more than the next highest average. Jeanty has rushed for at least 125 yards in 13 straight games.

Jeanty has gone over 200 yards in his last two games and a total of six times this season. He averages 7.26 yards per cary, and his 344 attempts are the most in the FBS in two seasons. He and Army’s Bryson Daily share the national lead with 29 rushing touchdowns.

Ward

The Miami quarterback was named Associated Press offensive player of the year and newcomer of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Monday. He leads the nation with a school-record 36 passing touchdowns and his 4,123 passing yards, 4,319 total yards, 343.6 passing yards per game and 41 total touchdowns rank second.

Ward leads the nation's highest-scoring offense (44.2 ypg). He became the first Miami quarterback to post seven straight 300-yard games, and he has 10 games with 300-plus yards and three or more TD passes.

Rays' opener moved back a day, giving more time to prepare temporary Steinbrenner Field home

DALLAS (AP) — The Rays' opener against the Colorado Rockies was pushed back a day until March 28 to give Tampa Bay an extra day to adapt the New York Yankees' Steinbrenner Field.

Tampa Bay is playing home games at the Yankees' spring training facility in Tampa, Florida, this year because of damage to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg by Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9.

“I know that the Rays and MLB will do everything in their power to make it feel as though it’s a major league — it will be a major league game,” Rockies manager Bud Black said Monday. “Just from what I’ve seen visually through TV, it’s a nice ballpark. Like I said, as far as the clubhouses, how it’s run, all the things outside of the game itself, they’re going to be up to major league specifications.”

The Yankees' last spring training home game is against the Rays on March 23.

The Yankees said Sunday the Rays “will have limited permission to sell regular-season advertising inventory throughout the seating bowl, including stadium concourse walls, the scoreboard (both signage and videoboard spots) and the outfield walls.”

Rays staff will operate the scoreboard and employ Tampa Bay elements. The statue of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner will remain in place outside the stadium but decisions have not been made on the large Y-A-N-K-E-E-S signs on each side of the stadium and the Yankees mural on the back of the scoreboard.

Tampa Bay is scheduled to play 19 of its first 22 games at home and 37 of 54 through May 28, then play 64 of its last 108 games on the road in an attempt to avoid summer rain at the open-air ballpark.

“For us it’s going to be three games. For Tampa it’s going to be 81,” Black said. “So they’re the ones who I think have to work the adjustment. It will be a nice little diversion from the Trop.”

The site of any Rays postseason games would be decided jointly by the Rays, Yankees and Major League Baseball, the Yankees said.

Tampa Bay will use the Yankees' clubhouse on the first base side, which was renovated during the 2023-24 offseason. New York will use the visitor's clubhouse for its regular-season games at Steinbrenner Field.

A building containing a visitor's batting cage and weight room was previously built on the third base side, and additional team dining facilities and a new weight room are under construction on the first base side.

Yankees personnel will not have access during the regular season to their pitching facility near back field 3 and rehab players will be limited to the minor league facility on the other side of Dale Mabry Blvd. The Rays will not have access to the Yankees' pitching facility.

Avalanche swap goaltenders by sending Georgiev to Sharks as part of a deal for Blackwood

DENVER (AP) — On his 28th birthday, goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood received a trade to the Colorado Avalanche along with some friendly advice.

“Just stop the puck,” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland said of the message to his newest goaltender. “That's what we're looking for from him.”

Seems simple enough, but that inability to stop shots on a consistent basis this season led the Avalanche to trade another goaltender on Monday. The Avs swapped netminders with San Jose, sending a struggling Alexandar Georgiev to the Sharks for Blackwood.

As part of the deal, the Avalanche also acquired forward Givani Smith along with San Jose’s fifth-round pick in 2027. The Sharks received forward Nikolai Kovalenko and two draft picks — a fifth-round selection in 2025 and a second-round pick in 2026.

Colorado will retain 14% of Georgiev's contract, which equates to approximately $476,000. He was in the last season of a $10.2 million, three-year deal.

“We paid a steep price,” MacFarland said in a Zoom call. “At the end of the day, I didn’t want to wait and be in a position where we had to do something. We just felt this made a lot of sense for us right now.”

On Nov. 30, Colorado shook up its goaltending situation by trading backup Justus Annunen to Nashville for Scott Wedgewood.

The Avalanche, who have allowed 3.55 goals per game this season, made a more dramatic move in net on Monday. The 28-year-old Georgiev had a slow start to the season, even spending some time on the bench. He is 8-7 with a 3.38 goals-against average and a .874 save percentage.

“We felt we needed an upgrade a few weeks ago and started kicking the tires," MacFarland said. “But it’s not easy to make goaltending trades. People think it’s just pick up the phone and make an offer — teams don’t trade starting goaltenders in this league easily. So for us to make these two deals, it was a challenge.”

Georgiev was acquired by Colorado in a deal with New York Rangers on July 7, 2022. He made the NHL All-Star Game a year ago in a season when he finished with a league-leading 38 wins. He wound up 86-41-11 in an Avalanche sweater.

Blackwood also started off slow this season, with an 0-2-2 mark. But he has a 2.72 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage over his last 14 appearances. On Oct. 22, Blackwood celebrated his 200th career game by stopping 37 of 39 shots in a 3-1 loss to Anaheim.

“We believe there’s some untapped, still potential in him as he’s growing as a goaltender," MacFarland said. "We think he's stylistically going to fit really well with how we play.”

MacFarland said Blackwood was under the weather and won't join the team in Pittsburgh for the Avalanche's game Tuesday. Instead, he will head to Denver.

“I chatted with him briefly, he's super excited — as are we,” MacFarland said. “He knows the opportunity in front of him.”

The Sharks initially acquired Blackwood from New Jersey in 2023 for a sixth-round pick. By trading Blackwood to the Avalanche, the Sharks were able to net a prized prospect in Kovalenko and future assets in the draft.

A rookie this season, Kovalenko has four goals and four assists over 28 games. He's currently ninth in goals among first-year players. The 25-year-old Kovalenko made his NHL debut during Game 4 of Colorado's first-round playoff series last season. He became the sixth player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to have his NHL debut arrive in the playoffs.

“You’ve got to give to get. The goalie market, it’s a bear," MacFarland said of including Kovalenko in the deal. “That was the cost of doing business. ... We had to swallow hard and include him in the deal. We wish him nothing but the best."

Smith has played in six games for San Jose this season. The 26-year-old was originally selected by Detroit in the second round of the 2016 draft.