Matt Tamanini
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Ask LGHL: How nervous should OSU fans be about Hendon Hooker’s Heisman potential?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
Question: How nervous should OSU fans be about Hendon Hooker’s Heisman potential?
Look out, folks, the Henden Hooker Hype Train is looking to steamroll over all common sense and objective analysis. As you likely know by now, the Tennessee Volunteers beat the Alabama Crimson Tide last Saturday thanks to a knuckling field goal attempt in a game that saw nary a shred of defense played.
Coming out of the contest, the prisoner-of-the-moment college football intelligencia determined that somehow, Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker had rocketed past Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud to the top of every QB honor watchlist imaginable, including the Heisman Trophy.
Not only was Stroud left off the AP’s mid-season All-America list, but the brain trust over at The Athletic gave Hooker 33 first-place votes to Stroud’s 4, just seven days after the Buckeye QB held a 23-8 advantage in that same category.
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ESPN also has Hooker at No. 1 on its Heisman Watch leaderboard, but that at least is by a slim five-point margin. While I understand that Hooker now owns the best win of the college football season and that he played really well en route to the victory (21-for-30 for 385 yards, 5 TDs, and 1 INT), to act as if that one win was worthy of erasing Stroud’s nearly perfect season thus far — and heretofore decided lead in the race — is just silly.
Fortunately, the always level-headed, never-reactionary oddsmakers over at DraftKings Sportsbook were not being held hostage by the results of a single game. Stroud still maintains a comfortable betting advantage at +110 to Hooker’s +425.
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But, if you are a Buckeye fan who has been counting on Stroud pushing Ohio State out of its tie with Notre Dame, USC, and Oklahoma for the most Heismans in college football history, I can understand why this would be concerning.
There should be no doubt that Hooker is a fantastic player and is obviously deserving of Heisman consideration, that’s not what I find ridiculous. What I find ridiculous is the kneejerk reactions by “analysts” and “experts” who flip-flop their opinions based solely on the last thing that they’ve seen.
Is beating Alabama objectively a big deal? Of course. Is beating this version of the Alabama defense something that should automatically make someone a Heisman Trophy frontrunner? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let’s take a quick look at the stats for the two quarterbacks and you tell me if catapulting Hooker ahead of Stroud was more about season-long performance or beating the sport’s premiere dynasty in an obviously down year (by Alabama’s standards)?
The numbers are obviously very similar between the two, with each having the edge in a category or two (although, I think Stroud obviously has the advantage through six games apiece). If you want to say that Hooker has had the more difficult schedule thus far, having played against Ball State, Pitt, Akron, Florida, LSU, and ‘Bama, I will concede that in his favor, but I don’t think the discrepancy is all that much different.
But, today’s question was not about Hooker’s Heisman worthiness, it was about whether or not Stroud supporters should be worried about the UT QB’s candidacy. Obviously, how much of a worrier you are will impact how you answer this question, but I don’t think that you have much to worry about at this point.
Last Saturday was Hooker’s “Heisman Moment,” leading his team to victory over the Tide for the first time in 16 years. Despite the season-opening win against Notre Dame, Stroud hasn’t yet had the opportunity to put up impressive numbers against quality defenses. While his only chance to have anything approaching the Vols’ victory over Alabama likely won’t come until The Game, if Stroud plays up to his season standard against Iowa and Penn State, that should go a long way to further cementing his frontrunner status.
Hooker and the Vols play Tennessee-Martin this weekend, then close out the month by hosting No. 19 Kentucky and traveling to Athens to take on No. 1 Georgia. If the QB plays well and leads his team to victory in both of those SEC games, then it’s probably time for Buckeye and C.J. fans to start worrying. But we’ve been down similar roads with the Vols before; so, until I see them do it with my own two eyes, I’m not going to give them that much benefit of the doubt.
The Buckeyes will be favored in every game from here on out. If Ryan Day allows Stroud to play four quarters against Iowa, Penn State, and TTUN, and he is able to do what he has done for the majority of his collegiate career, I think that there will be every reason to believe that our guy C.J. will be a fixture in Nissan Heisman House commercials for years to come.
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Every day for the entirety of the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
Question: How nervous should OSU fans be about Hendon Hooker’s Heisman potential?
Look out, folks, the Henden Hooker Hype Train is looking to steamroll over all common sense and objective analysis. As you likely know by now, the Tennessee Volunteers beat the Alabama Crimson Tide last Saturday thanks to a knuckling field goal attempt in a game that saw nary a shred of defense played.
Coming out of the contest, the prisoner-of-the-moment college football intelligencia determined that somehow, Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker had rocketed past Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud to the top of every QB honor watchlist imaginable, including the Heisman Trophy.
Not only was Stroud left off the AP’s mid-season All-America list, but the brain trust over at The Athletic gave Hooker 33 first-place votes to Stroud’s 4, just seven days after the Buckeye QB held a 23-8 advantage in that same category.
ESPN also has Hooker at No. 1 on its Heisman Watch leaderboard, but that at least is by a slim five-point margin. While I understand that Hooker now owns the best win of the college football season and that he played really well en route to the victory (21-for-30 for 385 yards, 5 TDs, and 1 INT), to act as if that one win was worthy of erasing Stroud’s nearly perfect season thus far — and heretofore decided lead in the race — is just silly.
Fortunately, the always level-headed, never-reactionary oddsmakers over at DraftKings Sportsbook were not being held hostage by the results of a single game. Stroud still maintains a comfortable betting advantage at +110 to Hooker’s +425.
But, if you are a Buckeye fan who has been counting on Stroud pushing Ohio State out of its tie with Notre Dame, USC, and Oklahoma for the most Heismans in college football history, I can understand why this would be concerning.
There should be no doubt that Hooker is a fantastic player and is obviously deserving of Heisman consideration, that’s not what I find ridiculous. What I find ridiculous is the kneejerk reactions by “analysts” and “experts” who flip-flop their opinions based solely on the last thing that they’ve seen.
Is beating Alabama objectively a big deal? Of course. Is beating this version of the Alabama defense something that should automatically make someone a Heisman Trophy frontrunner? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let’s take a quick look at the stats for the two quarterbacks and you tell me if catapulting Hooker ahead of Stroud was more about season-long performance or beating the sport’s premiere dynasty in an obviously down year (by Alabama’s standards)?
The numbers are obviously very similar between the two, with each having the edge in a category or two (although, I think Stroud obviously has the advantage through six games apiece). If you want to say that Hooker has had the more difficult schedule thus far, having played against Ball State, Pitt, Akron, Florida, LSU, and ‘Bama, I will concede that in his favor, but I don’t think the discrepancy is all that much different.
But, today’s question was not about Hooker’s Heisman worthiness, it was about whether or not Stroud supporters should be worried about the UT QB’s candidacy. Obviously, how much of a worrier you are will impact how you answer this question, but I don’t think that you have much to worry about at this point.
Last Saturday was Hooker’s “Heisman Moment,” leading his team to victory over the Tide for the first time in 16 years. Despite the season-opening win against Notre Dame, Stroud hasn’t yet had the opportunity to put up impressive numbers against quality defenses. While his only chance to have anything approaching the Vols’ victory over Alabama likely won’t come until The Game, if Stroud plays up to his season standard against Iowa and Penn State, that should go a long way to further cementing his frontrunner status.
Hooker and the Vols play Tennessee-Martin this weekend, then close out the month by hosting No. 19 Kentucky and traveling to Athens to take on No. 1 Georgia. If the QB plays well and leads his team to victory in both of those SEC games, then it’s probably time for Buckeye and C.J. fans to start worrying. But we’ve been down similar roads with the Vols before; so, until I see them do it with my own two eyes, I’m not going to give them that much benefit of the doubt.
The Buckeyes will be favored in every game from here on out. If Ryan Day allows Stroud to play four quarters against Iowa, Penn State, and TTUN, and he is able to do what he has done for the majority of his collegiate career, I think that there will be every reason to believe that our guy C.J. will be a fixture in Nissan Heisman House commercials for years to come.
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
Continue reading...