PHOTO USA Today Sports Images The college football season arrives Saturday with Week 0, featuring the Florida State Seminoles and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets squaring off in Ireland.
Neither team likely has an athlete ready to break the tape in the Heisman Trophy race, college football’s annual award for the most outstanding player given out since 1935.
The most recent winner was former LSU Tiger quarterback Jayden Daniels, who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Below are the four best bets to win the next Heisman, including a dark horse.
Dillon Gabriel, QB, Oregon (+550 at FanDuel)
Gabriel will be under center for the Ducks in 2024. He began his career at UCF and spent the past two seasons at Oklahoma.
In 2023, Gabriel completed 226 of 384 passes for 3,660 yards, 30 touchdowns, and six interceptions, and also had 373 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. A sixth-year senior from Hawaii, the 23-year-old Gabriel has a sparkling resume: 14,865 passing yards with 125 touchdowns and 26 interceptions in his five previous college seasons.
While Oregon is getting to know Gabriel, the Ducks are getting familiar with the Big Ten.
The Ducks’ offense averaged 7.6 yards per play in 2023, second-most in the country. His top weapons include Evan Stewart and Tez Johnson, and his rushing upside allows him to rack up even more gaudy statistics.
Given the fluidity of the Oregon offense, Gabriel could raise his completion percentage from the high 60s into the 70s, similar to Bo Nix’s 2023 output.
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Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss (+1400 at FanDuel)
Dart’s odds are trending up, and it all adds up.
Dart completed 233 of 361 passes for 3,363 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions last season, along with 568 rushing yards and eight scores. He’s a dual-threat quarterback, and the team’s leading rusher, Quinshon Judkins, transferred to Ohio State.
Dart has three new offensive linemen in front of him. Along with improved protection, Dart should see more chances to rack up rushing yards.
With the expansion to a 12-team College Football Playoff, if Ole Miss gets in and makes some noise, that’ll only add to his resume.
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Nico Iamaleava, QB, Tennessee (+1400 at FanDuel)
Entering his second season, Iamaleava is a dual-threat signal caller who will take over the starting job for the Volunteers with Joe Milton headed to the NFL.
Iamaleava played in Tennessee’s bowl game against Iowa. He completed 12 of 19 passes for 151 yards and one touchdown pass. He then had 51 rushing yards and three rushing scores.
He plays for an SEC program and has the skill set to be incredibly dynamic and single-handedly lead Tennessee to wins.
If the Volunteers make it into the Playoff and make some noise, he, like Dart, could steal a win.
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Dark Horse: Kyron Drones, QB, Virginia Tech (+6000 at FanDuel)
Drones’ odds were at +10000 not long ago, and his odds are rapidly ascending.
The biggest negative for Drones is whether he’ll get ample opportunity and Heisman-level exposure at Virginia Tech. They went 7-6 last season, when Drones completed 165 of 286 passes for 2,080 yards, 17 touchdowns, and three interceptions. He added 145 rush attempts for 987 yards and five scores.
As Daniels showed last season, when looking for a dark horse, take your swings on a dual-threat quarterback.
The Hokies are positioned in the ACC—a winnable conference with a lot of turnover—and if Virginia Tech can be in the conference title picture late in the season, Drones should also be in the Heisman picture.
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