Plus, a blind resume look at the favorites.
Each week this college football season, BetFTW will take a look at the 2022 Heisman Trophy race and break down the contenders. Check back each Monday as the best college football players in the country jockey for position with both oddsmakers and bettors. Preseason odds can be found here and Week 12 here.
All year long we waited for C.J. Stroud to go out and make his Heisman Trophy statement with a signature performance. The betting favorite for the majority of the year just had to do something—anything—to justify his credentials and show voters his odds were based on more than his potential.
It turns out we should’ve been paying more attention to Southern California than Ohio State.
On Saturday, in a primetime game against Notre Dame, USC’s Caleb Williams went out and made himself the easy choice to win this year’s award in spectacular fashion. He may have lifted the Trojans into a College Football Playoff spot in the process.
Before we get to this week’s odds, a quick reset. Here’s a blind look at the resumes for the top Heisman contenders:
Player A: Bryce Young 2021 (Heisman Winner)
Player B: C.J. Stroud
Player C: Caleb Williams
Player D: Max Duggan
But what those numbers don’t tell you are just the levels of pure wizardry Williams possesses. My colleague Michelle Martinelli has an incredible breakdown of Williams’ skillset here, but I’ll simplify things a bit more:
Williams has the “It Factor”. When you watch him scramble, extend plays and make a laser pas on the run, you know you’re watching a player operate at his peak. The USC star has been showing it all year. Saturday’s statement performance against Notre Dame was more about cementing his status than proving he deserved to be in New York. And Williams did just that.
After going virtually stride-for-stride with Stroud all season long on the Heisman board, Williams’ regular season finale extinguished whatever hope the Buckeyes star still had of winning the award.
Let’s take a quick look at how the favorites fared last week.
