Heisman Trophy odds: The Spencer Rattler hype continues to grow

The Legend of Spencer Rattler grows along with his Heisman Trophy odds.

Spencer Rattler is next up for Oklahoma football quarterbacking greatness.

The sophomore from Phoenix, Arizona could be the fourth different Oklahoma Sooners quarterback to be invited to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in as many years. Baker Mayfield won it in 2017, Kyler Murray did the same in 2018 and Jalen Hurts finished as runner-up to Joe Burrow last year. Will Rattler be a top-four player in the country in his first year as a starter in 2020?

SuperBookUSA has Rattler with the third-best odds to bring home a Heisman Trophy at this stage of the offseason. He comes in at 12/1, a little bit back of co-favorites Trevor Lawrence of the Clemson Tigers and Justin Fields of the Ohio State Buckeyes at 4/1. There is no coincidence Clemson and Ohio State are the co-favorites to win the College Football Playoff at this time.

While Fields and Lawrence should be the co-favorites to win the Heisman Trophy, it is strange to see a quarterback who has never started a college game before come in with the third-best odds. With the exception of LSU Tigers quarterback Myles Brennan, every other player with 50/1 or better odds has at least one year’s worth of starting experience. Is Rattler being overhyped?

Get on the Spencer Rattler Heisman Trophy hype train while you can.

Stadium’s Brett McMurphy tweeted out the Heisman odds for all 19 players with 50/1 or better. After Fields, Lawrence and Rattler come Texas Longhorns quarterback Sam Ehlinger at 14/1 followed by Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Jamie Newman at 16/1. Next are six players with the sixth-best odds at 25/1, including Lawerence’s Clemson teammate running back Travis Etienne.

While Rattler plays the right position of quarterback at the right school in Oklahoma to get a Heisman invitation, him being essentially twice as likely to win the Heisman over players like Etienne, Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard and Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Ian Book can’t sit well with fans of those major Power 5 programs.

Etienne and Hubbard are widely seen as the two best running backs in college football. They will be First-Team All-Americans, possibly unanimous inclusions, and one of them will take home the Doak Walker during awards season. Book isn’t as talented as Rattler, but his big-game experience in the last two years make hime a sneaky-good Heisman dark horse contender at 25/1.

What sportsbooks are trying to tell us is they believe so much in the Lincoln Riley Air Raid in Norman that even a first-year starting quarterback will put up ridiculous numbers in that system to merit being included in the Heisman discussion. Murray was a one-year starter at Oklahoma and Hurts wasn’t exactly an elite thrower of the football during his first three years at Alabama.

Rattler is next up for Oklahoma football, which means he’s going to New York in December.

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