Can we just hand the Heisman Trophy to Lamar Jackson now? Jackson has broken away from the pack with one scintillating performance after another. With only three weeks left of regular season college football schedule, let’s take a look at where Jackson and some other candidates sit on the odds.
Lamar Jackson is just several laps ahead of everyone now. In fact, the Louisville quarterback has odds of -2,000 to take home the coveted hardware at the end of the season. In the latest episode of the Lamar Jackson show, the Louisville quarterback laid waste on Boston College’s defense in a 52-7 win last week, in which he was involved in seven scoring touchdowns. Jackson has 26 passing touchdowns and 19 rushing scores on the season and there should be more with three games left on the Cardinals’ regular season schedule.
The others
In a nutshell, the Heisman Trophy race is Lamar Jackson vs. the rest of college football. Unless Jackson took a catastrophic stumble the rest of the season, the Cardinals’ quarterback will be bagging the award. And if Jackson did indeed face plants from this point forward, any one of Deshaun Watson, Jake Browning, and Jabrill Peppers could end up stealing the Heisman from Jackson.
Watson sustained his strong season last week, as he played a key role in handing Syracuse a soul-crushing 54-0 defeat. Watson passed for 169 yards and two touchdowns against the Orange. He added 39 more yards on the ground with a score and could’ve done more if it weren’t for a shoulder injury that briefly took him out of the contest. Assuming he’s fine, expect Watson to put up better numbers this Saturday against Pittsburgh.
Browning, on the other hand, is fresh off leading the Huskies to a 667-27 win over California last Saturday. Browning, who passed for 378 yards and six touchdowns without an interception against the Bears, is a big reason why the Huskies have an undefeated record so far and are sitting inside the top four of the AP Poll rankings.
As for Peppers, the do-it-all linebacker has a longshot to win the trophy, but remains a contender nonetheless given his body of work this season. Peppers was all over the field again in Michigan’s 59-3 steamrolling of Maryland last Saturday, as he played linebacker, slot receiver, cornerback, safety, running back, wide receiver, and even as a quarterback during a wildcat play. What can’t this man do?
