All of the delusional SoCal bros flooding Vegas with USC nationwide championship bets could be higher off taking that cash and stapling it to bar partitions or burying it. A title workforce constitutes greater than Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams because it takes pallets of expertise to face down the Alabamas, Georgias, and Ohio States of the world. Even with Pitt broad receiver switch Jordan Addison, the Trojans must play flawless soccer to succeed in the playoff not to mention win two rounds.
So in gentle of that actuality, permit me to supply up one other wager with, because the specialists name it, higher worth. I’m not right here to really give betting recommendation. Most of what I learn about playing comes through popular culture or osmosis from my many degenerate pals who nonetheless yell at TV screens within the fall. That stated, seize Williams for Heisman at +700 proper now (for those who haven’t already parlayed it with your title guess).
The two favorites for the trophy — Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young — deserve the chances that they’ve been given. Young gained it final 12 months, and Stroud accomplished greater than 70 p.c of his throws whereas posting gaudy numbers — 4,435 yards passing, 44 touchdowns, and solely six interceptions. The Tide’s QB largely put up higher stats than that (4,872 yards, 47 TDs, and 7 picks, with a 67 p.c completion proportion), which is why he walked away with faculty soccer’s most prized particular person award.
Those numbers are objectively beautiful, and if both surpasses them, they’ll undoubtedly be frontrunners. That stated, it’s actually freaking onerous to repeat these years. Matt Leinart’s landing totals dropped yearly from his sophomore season to his senior 12 months. Lamar Jackson scored six fewer occasions within the follow-up to his Heisman-winning marketing campaign.
I wouldn’t name it regression as a result of it’s extraordinarily tough to have a season touched by God when everybody has the sport movie that bought a participant anointed the earlier season. Factor in opponents’ familiarity and some operating again dives from the one-yard line, and it’s sufficient for the typical pundit to push away the spoonful of hype like a baby with an additional sense of what’s a vegetable.
G/O Media might get a fee
Rest, get better, and chill
From family-owned natural hemp farms in Wisconsin, Evn is a high-performance CBD model that brings you a centered, calm expertise proper to your doorstep.
In the case of Williams, he didn’t come wherever near his stat ceiling as a result of he didn’t see taking part in time till after Spencer Rattler’s incomprehensible 2021 Heisman marketing campaign got here to an finish when he bought benched towards Texas. Williams’ comeback was the stuff of legends, and as a lot as Texas want to rectify final 12 months’s meltdown, the Longhorns gained’t have that chance — not towards Williams not less than.
In eight-plus video games, the brand new Trojans’ QB had 1,912 yards within the air, 21 go TDs, 4 interceptions, and one other 442 yards and 6 scores on the bottom. He may simply high 3,000 yards passing this 12 months with a full season underneath heart, and the receiving expertise on that workforce. I additionally wouldn’t be shocked if he eclipsed 1,000 yards on the bottom as USC’s backfield is made up of latest or former transfers and a freshman who mixed for 958 yards speeding in 2021.
Despite the entire transfers and recruits, USC will want Williams to do every part. The workforce improved simply sufficient, and the convention stays simply weak sufficient, for 10 wins to be within the realm of prospects. There is likely to be an occasional blowout the place Williams sits 1 / 4, but I’m banking on Riley needing — and utilizing — him fairly a bit.
Plus, familiarity gained’t be a difficulty. The solely workforce within the Pac-12 that confronted Williams final season (Oregon) isn’t on the schedule until they meet within the convention title recreation. The odds of the Trojans making that recreation is likely to be just a little longer with commissioner George Kliavkoff scrapping the divisions this 12 months. That stated, they gained’t must combat preseason No. 7 Utah to succeed in it, and No. 11 Oregon has query marks with a brand new coach and new (switch) quarterback, Bo Nix, who I don’t belief in any respect.
Notre Dame and Utah are the hardest matchups on the schedule, and the Trojans don’t play the Golden Domers till the ultimate recreation of the common season. While the Utes in Week 7 scare the shit out of me, if Williams can get out of there with out a efficiency like he had towards Iowa State in ’21, present out towards Notre Dame, and win a attainable rematch with Utah (or beat Oregon) to win the Pac-12, there will probably be tidal waves of help for Williams’ Heisman candidacy.
And I haven’t even talked about the historical past of quarterbacks going ham underneath Riley’s tutelage.
So there you go, USC followers. If you need a wager to scream “Fight on!” about the complete season, go along with Caleb for Heisman, a guess you would possibly really win reasonably than a pipe dream.
Discussion about this post