It is hard to see past Lamar Jackson winning the prestigious Heisman Trophy this year, the sophomore quarterback has been in sensational form for the Louisville Cardinals. This leaves him as the overwhelming odds on favorite with bookmakers to take the trophy home when the final result is announced on December 10th at 8pm ET on ESPN.
Last week against Boston College Jackson accounted for 7 touchdowns, 4 passing and 3 rushing, to take his touchdown tally to 45 (26 passing & 19 rushing) for the season as the Cardinals ran away with the game 52-7. The superstar in the making is closing in on the FBS record for the most touchdowns in a single season, currently held by Colt Brennan who set it back in 2006. His statistics for the season are breath taking having now passed for 2573 yards and rushed for 1181 yards making him the 1st quarterback to rush for over 1000 yards in a single season for Louisville. It is no wonder that bookmakers can’t see past him rushing home with the trophy.
Yet stranger things have happened. Just look at this week's Presidential shock election result which went totally against all the expert pollsters’ predictions and left them scratching their heads and looking rather embarrassed. Upsets happen all the time and with a month of football still to be played at the business end, now may be the time to have a punt on an outsider at very lucrative odds to lift the trophy. There are many betting and casino sites that will allow you to place your bets, especially weird bets like on who becomes the next president of the United States of America. How exactly did those bets go? According to casinos.co, good!
In a direct quote from the webmaster at casinos.co: “The freak election seemed incredible for most, including the bettors where 77% of them bet on Hillary Clinton becoming the next US president, which meant the gambling companies for odds and casino cashed in big, even when setting the odds of Donald Trump winning at 4:1.”
Things get decided at the end of a season, when teams are vying for a place in the semi-finals and when the majority of conferences host their respective league championship games. Who can forget how odds on favourite Leonard Fournette, the LSU Tigers running back, got overran by Derrick Henry (12-1) the running back from Alabama last year. A very tidy bet if you saw that one coming.
Louisville’s last 3 games are against Wake Forest, Houston and Kentucky, not particularly strong opposition but all have positive Win-Loss ratios so there is a chance the Cardinals could slip up. Even if they win all 3 games it would still take a Hail Mary for them to get into the ACC Championship game as they would have to win all their last 3 games by big margins and rely on some shock results for them to sneak in. This is where the Heisman Trophy gets interesting as Jackson will not play in the last week and that's when the majority vote for eventual victor.
Bookmakers firmly believe the he will continue his mesmeric form until the end of the season and that his superstar quality will carry him through. But what if it does not?
Who are the other contenders?
The only other real contenders with a sniff are the trio Deshaun Watson (Clemson quarterback), Jake Browning (Washington QB), Jabrill Peppers (Michigan LB/DB).
Deshaun Watson led the Tigers to a 30-0 halftime lead vs Syracuse with 3 total touchdowns before a bruised shoulder saw him leave the field last week. He has now scored 26 touchdowns (24 passing & 2 rushing) this season. The junior has thrown a total of 2497 yards and rushed for 370 yards. He led the Tigers to final last year and was instrumental in Clemson beating Florida State (37-34) for the 1st time in 10 years. Watson will need to impress in their last 2 games and play a blinder in the ACC Championship game.
Jake Browning was impressive against California last week as Washington ran away 66-27 winners. The sophomore quarterback had 6 passing touchdowns throwing a season high 378 yards taking his passing touchdowns to 34 for 2273 yards and in Washington's 9 wins his completion rate has never fallen below 65%. If the Huskies run the table and win the Pac-12 title game Browning will be a contender for the Heisman Trophy.
Jabrill Peppers was solid in Michigan's 59-3 mauling over Maryland. He lined up at line-backer, running back, slot and boundary cornerback, safety and wide receiver. He now has a total of 49 tackles, 33 solo and 4 sacks for the season. His versatility will impress voters and the Wolverines led by head coach Jim Harbaugh will have to dominate their last 2 games and the Big 10 Championship game to keep Peppers in the hunt for an outside chance of lifting the Heisman Trophy.
So will Lamar Jackson walk it or is another upset on the cards, the bookmakers don’t think so and that's where any real betting value lies.
