2019 Heisman Trophy Odds Tracker

• The Heisman Trophy is college football’s most prestigious individual award.
• It’s also very hard to predict who will win.
• We’re tracking the odds on the favorites, from last year’s title game right up to award week. 

Every college football season, we track the favorites for college football’s most prestigious award, the Heisman Trophy, by averaging out the futures odds available at major online sportsbooks.

Predicting who will win is a difficult exercise, especially in the preseason. In 2018, eventual winner Kyler Murray wasn’t even on the board at the outset, and he was a +2300 longshot when he first popped up in late July. Fellow finalist Dwayne Haskins started out at +3500.

Heisman Trophy Favorites

• [Oct. 15] Another prolific week from Burrow (+32) against Florida has moved him ahead of Hurts (+370) into second.
• [Oct. 8] Even though Jalen Hurts (+330) continues to put up huge numbers and Joe Burrow (+380) does likewise, Tua’s odds are now shorter than even money (-110).
• [Sep. 30] Tua Tagovailoa, who was already the favorite, saw his odds get much shorter after a huge Week 5, going from +250 to +120.
• [Sep. 24] This has turned into a thrilling three-horse race between Tagovailoa (+250), Burrow (+310), and Hurts (+350).
• [Sep. 17] Trevor Lawrence is dropping out of contention. His current +570 odds are more than twice as long as they were in mid-August (+250).
• [Sep. 12] Scratch what I just wrote about Burrow; bettors kept hammering him mid-week and he’s now +1200 on average, fourth-best in the nation.
• [Sep. 9] If you bet on Joe Burrow before the season, you got your money in at the right time. The LSU pivot has gone from +15000 to +1800 since the odds first opened.
• [Sep. 3] The odds moved significantly after Week 1, as expected. Some of the biggest risers were LSU QB Joe Burrow (+5200 to +3700), Clemson RB Travis Etienne (+2300 to +1900), and of course Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts (+900 to +700).
• [Aug. 19] Almost every RB and WR saw his odds drop, most notably, Clemons WR Tee Higgins went from +3500 to +6300.
• [Aug. 8] Ian Book is getting a lot of love, at least at some sites. He moved all the way up to +1600 at Bovada.
• [Jul. 18] Texas QB Sam Ehlinger has entered the top ten for the first time this year, now at +1700.
• [Jul. 3] Incoming Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts has consolidated his status as the third-favorite, moving from +790 to +690 as of early July.
• [February] Trevor Lawrence and Tua Tagovailoa are the early favorites. Not coincidentally, they are the two QBs who met in last year’s CFP title game. Like all sportsbooks, Bovada has Lawrence and Tagovailoa well ahead of the pack, with incoming  Georgia transfer Justin Fields (Ohio State) a distant third.

Heisman Trophy Odds at Bovada

Who Usually Wins the Heisman Trophy?

Lately, quarterbacks.

Here’s the list of Heisman Trophy winners by position, going back to the turn of the millenium. Only three non-QBs are on the list (and they’re all RBs). If you want to win this award, you better have the ball in your hands a lot.

Heisman Trophy Winners Since 2000

For those of you playing along at home, that’s 15 QBs and 3 running backs.

The last Heisman to go to a different position was Charles Woodson’s 1997 win. Before that, it was Desmond Howard in 1991, then Johnny Rodgers (who was kind of a running back) in 1972, and then Notre Dame end Leon Hart in 1949.