Public money pours in on Shedeur Sanders to win the Heisman

A lot of folks believe that when this football season wraps up Shedeur Sanders will etch his name next to Rashaan Salaam’s as winners of the Heisman Trophy while wearing black and gold.

Public money has poured in on the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback to win college football’s most coveted individual award with more than double the bets being placed on Sanders than anyone else, according to sports gambling reporter Ben Fawkes. He notes that the second-most amount of money total is on Sanders and given the amount of bets against the money attached, it basically means the public is picking Coach Prime’s son for the award this preseason.

Sanders is a longshot to be named the best player in college football as a 45-to-1 shot, which has implied odds of about 2%. Most books have some combination of the following players as their favorites to take home the award: sixth-year transfer Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Georgia’s Carson Beck, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Ohio State transfer quarterback from Kansas State Will Howard, young Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart and Miami transfer quarterback from Washington State Cam Ward.

The quarterback-heavy list has a bunch more QBs between the favorites and where Sanders is placed but his stats on a per-game basis from his one season in college football stack up with just about anyone.

In 11 games at Colorado in his junior season last fall, Sanders connected on 298 of his 430 passes for 3,230 yards with 27 touchdowns to just three interceptions. He added four touchdowns on the ground but was tagged for a loss of 77 yards rushing on 111 attempts because college stats count sacks as rushes and he was brought down more than any quarterback in the nation in 2023. These stats are actually on par or better than where Tom Brady and Mike Vick were in college. With a new offensive line and replenished weapons around him, there’s reason to hope his numbers explode further. Last season Sanders had an 81.3 QBR on throws 10 or fewer air yards. While his accuracy was fourth-best-in-FBS 73.3% when in the pocket and was one of the better players in the nation when judged for having his feet set.

Salaam’s Heisman Trophy came all the way back in 1994 when he rushed for over 2,000 yards and 24 touchdowns. The Buffaloes were in another world back then, threatening the top of college football every single season. And it might be this that holds back Sanders more than anything. In Coach Prime’s lone season in Boulder, he boosted the Buffs from one win to four but that’s still far from the championship chase most of the Heisman finalists will be a part of. For Sanders, it’s likely as much about his improvement headed into his senior year as it is the team getting better.

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