The race for the 2017 Heisman Trophy went in three phases. Reigning champ Lamar Jackson of Louisville was the early favorite, according to the odds tracker at Bovada, before Penn State running back Saquon Barkley took over as the September Heisman favorite due to all sorts of highlight runs early in the season.
Here was how the 2017 Heisman Trophy race went down, month by month
Lamar Jackson, Saquon Barkley, and Baker Mayfield were the three big favorites along the way.
Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
As Barkley’s numbers faded, Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield took over as the clear favorite, and by mid-November, Bovada had pulled Heisman odds entirely — and that was before OU clinched a Playoff spot and won the Big 12 by lighting up TCU again.
2017 Heisman odds rankings, by month
Name | Sept 5 | Oct 2 | Nov 6 | Dec 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saquon Barkley | 5 | 1 | 2 | 99 |
| Josh Adams | 99 | 99 | 3 | 99 |
| Bryce Love | 99 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Mason Rudolph | 5 | 3 | 5 | 99 |
| J.T. Barrett | 8 | 8 | 6 | 99 |
| Lamar Jackson | 1 | 4 | 7 | 2 |
| Baker Mayfield | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Sam Darnold | 2 | 5 | 99 | 99 |
| Luke Falk | 16 | 7 | 99 | 99 |
| Jake Browning | 10 | 9 | 99 | 99 |
| Jalen Hurts | 5 | 9 | 99 | 99 |
| J.K. Dobbins | 99 | 11 | 99 | 99 |
| Rashaad Penny | 99 | 12 | 99 | 99 |
| Quinton Flowers | 99 | 12 | 99 | 99 |
| Josh Rosen | 4 | 12 | 99 | 99 |
| Nick Chubb | 12 | 15 | 99 | 99 |
| Trace McSorley | 12 | 15 | 99 | 99 |
| Derwin James | 15 | 99 | 99 | 99 |
| Jarrett Stidham | 14 | 99 | 99 | 99 |
| Bo Scarbrough | 10 | 99 | 99 | 99 |
| Derrius Guice | 9 | 99 | 99 | 99 |
Mayfield’s gonna beat Jackson and Stanford’s Bryce Love in Saturday night’s ceremony, with Barkley looking likely to finish a distant fourth, seeing as he wasn’t a finalist.
Mayfield is an easy call for this year’s winner. He’s almost certain to break his own all-time record for passing efficiency over the course of a season, for one thing:
Mayfield’s having the best season ever in a few statistical departments.
His passer rating (203.8) is the best all-time, better than 2016 Baker Mayfield (196.4) and 2011 Russell Wilson (191.8).
His yards per attempt (11.8) is the best all-time, better than 1999 Michael Vick (11.4) and 2016 Baker Mayfield (11.1).
The passer rating gap between Mayfield’s current number and Wilson is the same as the gap between No. 3 Wilson and No. 15 Vernon Adams of Oregon.
Those are both among qualifiers who threw at least 14 passes per game.
If he threw as much as some QBs have, he’d break even more records.
His 4,340 yards are this year’s second-most, currently 52nd all-time. B.J. Symons’ 5,833 at Texas Tech in 2003 are the most. He’d shatter the all-time yardage record if he kept up his current yards per attempt and threw the same 719 passes Symons did in ‘03. Mayfield’s yardage would work out to 8,484. Lol.
His completion percentage (71) is this year’s best and 27th-best all-time among qualifiers. It’s a good bit off from Colt McCoy’s record 76.7 percent in 2008.
His 41 touchdowns are this year’s second-most and the 30th all-time. They’re not close to Colt Brennan’s record 58 at Hawaii in 2006. But Mayfield’s thrown a TD every 6.4 passes. Brennan threw one every 9.6.
And while Lamar’s at least as good as he was when he won and Love’s racked up Heisman-worthy numbers on the West Coast, Mayfield is the correct choice this year.
Baker Mayfield’s path to the Heisman Trophy
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