Latest Heisman Odds

hurtsNow why am I running Bovada’s latest Heisman Trophy odds with no USC players? Because I think it is interesting that Alabama QB Jalen Hurts is even listed as a candidate. See what happens when a coach decides to go with the freshman in Game 1?

Odds to win the 2016 Heisman Trophy

10/18/16                                                    Current Odds (10/25/16)

Lamar Jackson (QB Louisville)                           1/2                    1/3

Jabrill Peppers (S Michigan)                              9/1                    15/2

Deshaun Watson (QB Clemson)                         15/4                  15/2

Jake Browning (QB Washington)                        10/1                  10/1

JT Barrett (QB Ohio State)                                 15/2                  12/1

Jalen Hurts (QB Alabama)                                  16/1                  22/1

Dalvin Cook (RB Florida State)                          33/1                  40/1

52 thoughts on “Latest Heisman Odds

  1. Jabrill Peppers’ candidacy is a joke. Only reason he is being considered is the Big Ten’s Network/ABC/ESPN’s hyping of him.

    Thanks Larry Scott!

    • Assuming they win, I’m expecting Harbaugh to wear a Peppers Jersey at the Ohio State postgame presser and start singing “I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too”…

  2. Again, do not be a tool. Everyone knows you wanted Darnold. But , please please give it a rest.

    • Wrong, Wolf, like everyone else, had no clue Sam was going to be such a gamer and Max was not.

      • Wolf didn’t make it a secret that Darnold was doing better in spring and fall training camp but Browne was winning out on seniority.

  3. This isn’t the type of coaching staff that will produce any type of heisman winner, are you kidding me?! Development is the key! And I haven’t seen that in years at USC.

    • You haven’t seen Darnold develop from a HS LB to the top rated college QB? Come on, Fred.

      To be a Heisman contender Darnold needs to stop making freshman mistakes and for USC to be in the top 10.

      • Exactly Helen, and Tee and The Helton Bros are having fun expanding a play book for him. He should only get better and better. And Nobody knew he would gel like this.

      • I’m going to take a wait and see attitude, because the current coaching staff doesn’t have a history of doing anything .

        • With all due respect, Fred… your posts don’t reflect your “wait and see” attitude. I’m not one who thinks you can flip a switch and turn a sports team around overnight.

      • But how would you explain Max Browne’s flopping after having been a top recruit from high school and being tutored by Helton for 5 years?

        • Recruit rating systems are worthless. He never should have been a top recruit coming out of high school.

          • But he was one, and he hasn’t lived up to the expectations. And I’m sure Helton is at least partially responsible for it.

          • Helton can’t take a Sloth and make him into a Jack Rabbit.

            Calling Browne a flop is pretty harsh. He is a good QB, just not the best one on the USC roster.

            A college coach can develop talent but can’t create talent. Everyone has a ceiling.

          • So according to your logic, a Sloth can make a good QB. OK, I’ll give you that. So who benched the best QB on the team and started the second best for the season opener? It wasn’t Helton, was it? lol.

    • Helton helped develop Barkley who really was overrated but is still in the NFL despite his lack of elite physical talent. He also was the QB coach for most if not all of Kessler’s career and he improved throughout his time at USC and has played pretty well so far in the NFL, again despite his lack of elite talent. I’m assuming Darnold has developed some and wasn’t this good the very second he stepped onto campus and I’ve heard he’s not a private QB coach guy so it sure looks like despite his lack of head coaching ability, at least Helton can develop QB’s.

      • So all the recruiting rankings were wrong to say Barkley was the best prep quarterback in the nation, Pete Carroll was wrong to recruit Barkley because of his lack of elite talent and all the NFL scouts were wrong to rank Barkley among the best quarterback prospects his junior year? Talk about revisionist history.

    • Fred, I think that after every season, each Pac-12 HC (with help of his relevant assistant coaches) should be asked to rate the YEAR-ON-YEAR IMPROVEMENT in each player who played a “lot” of snaps against that HC’s team.

      When Scott wrote about the problem of coaching turnover, I looked at Peterson’s starting OL, since it’s purportedly a good one. Almost all WA kids, whose average HS rating was materially lower than the counterpart USC starters. USC’s players were typically top 20 at their position, and Washington’s starters top 40-60.

      I recall one study by Matt Hinton demonstrating that recruiting rank is statistically quite relevant. Apparently, something is going wrong at USC, relative to UW. It’s a good puzzle for Lynn Swann’s group to figure out. First, it might help clarify what USC should be looking for in coaches and in players. Second, it might help clarify what USC could contribute to these “unpaid” players, which I think matters.

      I don’t think Peterson is an accident, nor Saban, nor Meyers.

      • I agree that Peterson, Saban, & Meyers are all excellent coaches. And I am not placing the current SC staff or the previous two staffs in their class. But the lack of stability is also a contributing factor in the lack of development and consistency of play. As many reasons there are for the poor play by SC, there are opinions as to what is the biggest reason for the disappointing results. I am not sure which is the biggest factor; but the coaching turnover is a factor.

        • I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just suggesting that the Pac-12 initiate year-on-year player improvement evaluations by all opposing coaches as a systematic protocol, to let the players know how much they are progressing, and to let the coaches know as well whether they are helping these unpaid players grow, since many of the players at programs like USC aspire to NFL professional careers.

          USC is not the MOST underachieving program relative to its recruiting results. As of last week, Georgia and Texas, for instance, are underperforming far more severely. And I conducted only a quick and dirty look at just a few programs.

          But USC IS underperforming, at about the same level that FSU and UCLA are underperforming. LSU and Stanford are underperforming as well, but not as badly as FSU/USC/UCLA.

          On the other hand, Washington and Utah were OVERperforming the most in my small sample, with Clemson not too far behind. I’m pretty sure that Louisville is overperforming by a large margin right now, as well as Wisconsin, and almost certainly Houston. And again, I was not systematic and thorough at all

          It certainly seems that Peterson is achieving more with less, and it has felt that way regarding Utah for several years. USC is fortunate to start with MORE, so they don’t need to coach better than WA’s or UT’s coaches. USC should win against those teams if USC coach almost as well as those coaches.

          Analytics can only help clarify things for any AD, as well as for coaches and players. I think it’s advisable for USC to start thinking about the the best available tools to see how well they take advantage of their superior recruiting prowess relative to other programs in the West. Consistent lagging is not a good thing.

          Maybe it’s NOT consistently happening and is just a function of excessive coaching turnover, which will pass. That’s what you’re implying, I think. But you may not be correct. You don’t know unless you analyze things, and dig more deeply for likely explanations.

        • Yet Washington has had instability and Petersen was able to pick up the pieces in quick order.

          • CP is a proven coach , no question. But the SC dysfunction is/was exponentially worse than what WA was. In fact Sark brought WA back from a very deep hole and left a pretty good roster for CP. The knock in Sark , even before he left WA , was that he should have done more with what he had. CP seems to be proving that criticism correct. If I am picking a coach and CH & CP are the choices—-my choice is CP every day, all day.

    • So Helton gets no credit for the development of Darnold?They are just natural athletes when they succeed and coaches fault when they fail? Fred didn’t you push Charlie Strong? Has David Shaw forgotten how to coach? The only coach who had figured out how to win big without a good QB has been Saban. His method is to just stock pile talent at every position and get a average smart QB to not make mistakes.

  4. there’s a whole lota football yet to be played this year. Don’t bet money yet…

  5. From what I remember, Hurts didn’t start the game. He came in, moved the ball and stayed in. Then later in the game, instead of letting him finish the first game of his collegiate career to get as much experience as possible, he was taken out to get Barnett reps and possibly more playing experience in case Hurts’ performance turned out to be a fluke.

    Also, from what I remember, Darnold also played in the first game and did not move the ball. In fact, from the sideline reporter broadcasted right before he entered the game that Darnold looked extremely nervous.

    Darnold came in and did nothing against Alabama’s D, just like Browne.

    The following week, USC plays Utah State and while not necessarily looking like a superstar QB, Max Browne lights them up and the Trojans put up a ton of points.

    Against Stanford, the offensive line struggled mightily, the receivers dropped balls, and there were many notable coaching issues. I didn’t necessarily think Browne played poorly, but the offense really was not clicking and he seemed too robotic.

    Browne gets benched, Darnold starts and while he looks like a difference maker, his turnovers were a primary reason why USC lost. He has since played very well while still having some ball control issues.

    I’m reserving judgement on his super star status until after the Washington game, and I’m definitely not going to say he’d be in the Heisman conversation if he started from the beginning.

    But Wolf loves to act like hes the smartest guy in the room, bash USC no matter the circumstances, and post troll bait so we’ll probably be getting these kinds of posts until Darnold retires…

    • Hurt actually didn’t play that well against USC. He was the benefactor of some missed Defensive assignments. But outside of those gifts, he was just average.

      • Agree. And I’d say he was the benefactor of playing USC. It hurts me to say that. No pun intended.

        • Sigh… I still believe by the end of the year Pendergast’s defensive schemes will be better implemented and the defense will be a force. UCLA and ND certainly won’t be good validations, but UW will be.

        • Why would you bash USC to bash Hurts? That’s plain dumb. You say you played baseball so you understand competition unlike Hillary who always makes dumb posts. When should know that when you lose to a better team you should accept it and work to raise your game to their level instead of lowering yourself further by making excuses and playing the what if game. Don’t be a Hillary.

    • I agree on Browne, played like he had on concrete shoes.

      The fumbles by Darnold can be fixed. His ability is natural and he should go a long way. How many schools have a QB that could play Middle linebacker.

    • So your not buying the Wolf is just working to make USC excellent again? The interesting thing is most of the trolls have gone the way of the UCLA power offense.
      #missinginaction

    • He was smart enough to know Kiffin, Sark and Haden were all frauds. I missed your posts warning us about those three clowns.

  6. Not sure I follow the logic there, Blogger. Hurt is listed because he is the QB on the top college team.

  7. See what happens when a True Freshman is coached by the “Quarterback Whisperer” aka Lane Kiffin 🙂

  8. I’ve only been reading this blog for 8 years, I’m unclear, could you guys have started a different QB at the beginning of the season? Why has the blogger not mentioned this before?

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