By Tyler Wyatt
Hendon Hooker may very well have won himself the Heisman Trophy Saturday night with a near perfect performance against the Kentucky Wildcats. With a 76% completion percentage (19 of 25), 245 yards passing, and 4 TD’s (3 passing), the fifth year senior continued his meteoric rise from Heisman longshot to potential winner. Hooker was as high as 80 to 1 (+8000) this summer and stayed in the +6600 to +4400 range until knocking off Florida. Heading into today, most sportsbooks had Hooker with the second best odds to leave NYC’s Downtown Athletic Club a winner with odds in the +200 to +250 range, (ex: a $100 bet at +200 returns a $200 profit) just behind Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud who, at even money, has had the best odds since mid-June.
At approximately 9:17PM EST, after picking apart the Wildcats secondary for three quarters with surgical precision, the first U.S. sportsbook (DraftKings) moved Hooker ahead of Stroud and into the driver’s seat heading into the final month of the season. Hooker, sitting at -110 (risk $110 to return $210) is followed by Stroud (+190), Michigan RB Blake Corum (+1500), and USC quarterback Caleb Williams (+1500) at the Boston based sportsbook. It’s worth noting that Stroud is still the betting favorite at the Wynn (Hooker second at +175), while Caesars sportsbooks currently have Hooker (even money) ahead of the Buckeye QB (+190). With four regular season games remaining before conference championship week, it’s safe to say we have a two horse race regardless of which sportsbook you’re shopping at.
If Hooker is able to hold off Stroud and become the University of Tennessee’s first Heisman Trophy, not only will he exorcise some of the Peyton Manning/Charles Woodson demons, he will become one of the sport’s biggest longshots to win the award. Joe Burrow was as high as 150 to 1 (+15000) heading into the 2019 season, while Lamar Jackson took home the award as a preseason longshot of 100 to 1 (+10000).
While we’ll have to wait until December 10th to see which quarterback’s name is called, an upset of Georgia in Athens may all but cement Hooker’s place in Heisman history and there’s no indication that the Volunteers leader plans on slowing down anytime soon.
