New Name Stands Atop Heisman Odds Board

Heading into Week 10, a new name is atop the Heisman Trophy odds board: University of Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker. As you can see from the live BetQL Heisman Trophy Odds Dashboard below, he overtook Ohio State QB CJ Stroud, who had been the betting favorite since the preseason. Here are the stats and remaining matchups for the top 5 candidates.

Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker (+100 Consensus): Leading Tennessee to a perfect 8-0 start, Hooker has thrown for 2,338 yards with 21 passing touchdowns to just one interception and has also rushed for 338 yards with four touchdowns on the ground. With ranked wins over Kentucky, Alabama, LSU, Florida and Pittsburgh, the senior QB is the new favorite for a reason. A matchup against #1 Georgia this week will give him the opportunity to solidify his lead and he will then face Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt to finish the regular season. So, if he can lead the Volunteers to a win based on his play this week, he will be in the driver’s seat.

Ohio State QB CJ Stroud (+172 Consensus): At the helm of the nation’s most deadly offense, Stroud has lived up to his lofty expectations for the 8-0 Buckeyes and has amassed 2,377 passing yards with 29 touchdowns and four interceptions. A date against Michigan looms to finish the regular season, but before then, he should continue to put up gaudy numbers at Northwestern, versus Indiana and at Maryland. If he operates at this rate heading into the final week against the Wolverines, he may very well have the ability to create a coveted “Heisman moment” in the final week of the year.

Michigan RB Blake Corum (+1340 Consensus): Corum has very quietly put up some insane numbers since Big Ten play started. Look at these yardage totals: 243, 133, 124, 166 and 177. On the year, he’s taken 179 carries for 1,078 yards (6.0 yards per carry) with 14 rushing touchdowns and also caught a touchdown pass. However, Michigan has played a ranked opponent just one time. On the plus side, Corum will get the chance to show his stuff against Illinois and Ohio State (both ranked) to end the season after matchups at Rutgers and Nebraska in the upcoming weeks.

USC QB Caleb Williams (+1400 Consensus): USC is 7-1 and Williams has continued the trend of quarterbacks dominating in Lincoln Riley’s system. He’s thrown for 2,382 yards with 24 touchdowns and just one interception and has also added 249 rushing yards and three more touchdowns on the ground. He should be able to roll over Cal and Colorado and then will take on UCLA on the road and Notre Dame at home to finish up the regular season. USC will have to run the table with near perfect play from him in order to get Williams in the range of Hooker and Stroud (and also hope both of them regress or suffer a loss along the way). 

Oregon QB Bo Nix (+2400 Consensus): After transferring from Auburn, Nix has led Oregon to a 7-1 record with stellar dual-threat play at the QB position. He’s thrown for 2,221 yards with 20 touchdown passes with five interceptions (two of which came against Cal in Week 9) and has added 441 rushing yards with a whopping 11 additional touchdowns on the ground. With 10 passing touchdowns and eight rushing touchdowns over his last four Pac-12 games, he should continue to put up big numbers at Colorado and versus Washington before meetingup with currently-ranked Utah at home and Oregon State on the road to close out the regular season. Nix is a long shot, but if Oregon wins out and the guys with shorter odds suffer losses or have a bad week or two, the door could open for him.