The early Heisman odds are out in Las Vegas with a tiny bit of a surprise as the favorite. USC gunslinger Sam Darnold has ridden his video game-esque Rose Bowl performance all the way to the top as the odds on Heisman favorite.
While many believe that Darnold has all the tools to compete at the next level, it still might raise a couple of eyebrows from the casual fan that the Trojan QB was favored over last year’s winner, Louisville playcaller, Lamar Jackson. Jackson returns with another year under his belt, a better offensive line, and possibly a better receiving corp top to bottom from last year.
Obviously, while the Heisman odds aren’t a guarantee that a player will do well any given year, Vegas didn’t become Vegas because they were good at guessing. So it’s always worth checking out Heisman odds. However, maybe not for the reason one would think. Unless your name is Barry Sanders, you’re probably not getting on the Heisman stage, if you have 2 or 3 losses under your belt. Meaning, while it’s not an exact science, you can infer which teams Vegas thinks will do well this year by how high their players are on the Heisman odds list.
For us, the name that would stick out would be Baker Mayfield. The Sooner QB had a good year last year, and now he also has better odds that Lamar Jackson. Could it be that by reading the Vegas tea leaves we’re going to see Boomer Sooner return to glory this year? We’ll begin finding out come late August.
