Rebels RB Quinshon Judkins Odds To Win Heisman Trophy
The Ole Miss Rebels boasted one of college football's most elite offenses last season, averaging 33.5 points per game on a staggering 496.4 yards of total offense. While these numbers might suggest an air raid-style offense, that wasn't the case.
Instead, the Rebels fielded an elite rushing attack that averaged 256.6 yards per game. Leading the way for the Rebels in the run game was freshman Quinshon Judkins, who put the college football world on notice in his first season.
As a freshman Judkins rushed for 1,567 yards and 16 touchdowns en route to being named SEC Freshman of the Year and earning First Team All-SEC honors. And now, most optimistic betting odds show Judkins at 30-1 to win the Heisman Trophy or a 3.23 percent chance.
The problem is that the college football landscape has changed, and the trophy typically favors quarterbacks. In fact, six of the last seven players to win the Heisman played under center.
It wasn't always like that, though, as from 1973 through 1983, a running back won every season. A running back or fullback has won the award 43 times since 1935, but since 2000 it's only happened three times.
USC's Reggie Bush won the trophy in 2004, Alabama's Mark Ingram in 2009, and Alabama's Derrick Henry in 2015. So Judkins will not only have to win over the voters, he'll have to buck a trend. Just one running back has cracked the top three in Heisman voting, and that's Stanford's Bryce Love who was the runner-up to Baker Mayfield in 2017.
All things point to Judkins losing to a quarterback, but trends are made to be broken, and with another historic season statistically, Judkins could be the fourth back since 2000 to raise the Heisman Trophy.
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