UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson Sees Heisman Trophy Odds Improve
With the 2022 college football regular season halfway done, the Bruins' leading star has officially inserted himself into one of the most hotly-contested award races in sports.
UCLA football quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson has become an emerging candidate to win the Heisman Trophy, at least according to oddsmakers across the country. While Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud is the consensus favorite through Week 6, Thompson-Robinson is not too many spots behind.
BetMGM has Thompson-Robinson at +1600 to win the Heisman, good enough for the fifth-best odds in the country despite not even being on their board over the summer. After putting up 316 yards of total offense and five touchdowns against then-No. 11 Utah, though, Thompson-Robinson apparently did more than enough to draw the attention of Vegas.
VegasInsider is also giving Thompson-Robinson +1600 odds to win the trophy, tied for fifth alongside Michigan running back Blake Corum. FanDuel has Thompson-Robinson tied for the fourth-best odds next to Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, also at +1600.
Thompson-Robinson has passed for 1,510 yards and 15 touchdowns this season while only throwing two interceptions. His 74.8% completion percentage, 180.6 passer rating and 10.6 adjusted passing yards per attempt all rank No. 1 in the Pac-12, and they rank No. 2, No. 6 and No. 12 in the country, respectively. Thompson-Robinson's passer rating is on track to be the highest by a Pac-12 quarterback since Oregon's Marcus Mariota's in 2014 – the same season he won the Heisman and led the Ducks to the first-ever College Football Playoff.
None of those numbers account for Thompson-Robinson production on the ground, either, which combine to make him one of the most statistically impressive players in the nation.
Thompson-Robinson has also rushed for 231 yards and four touchdowns, many of which came on viral highlight reel plays like his hurdle over a Washington defender in Week 5 and a juke that caused two defenders to crash into each other on the goal line later that night.
After throwing his fourth touchdown pass against Utah on Saturday, Thompson-Robinson became UCLA's all-time passing touchdown leader with 76 in his career. In the coming weeks, he is on pace to break the school's all-time total yards and total touchdown records, and he could even challenge for the passing yards mark depending on how long the Bruins' season goes.
Nine of the last 10 Heisman Trophy winners were on teams that won 10 or more regular season games. The lone exception to that recent trend was quarterback Lamar Jackson, who still started the 2016 season 9-1 with Louisville.
Thompson-Robinson has led UCLA to its first 6-0 start since 2005, and the team currently boasts top-10 odds of winning the national championship. The Heisman challengers in Thompson-Robinson's ballpark – Stroud, Young, Corum, USC's Caleb Williams and Tennessee's Hendon Hooker – all currently have more difficult remaining schedules than the Bruins, according to ESPN's SOS rankings, thus giving them a rockier path to an undefeated season.
Since 2000, the Heisman Trophy has gone to a quarterback 18 times, compared to three times for a running back and once for a wide receiver. That immediately puts Thompson-Robinson in a better position to secure the award than his running back, Zach Charbonnet, who has impressed in his own right with 758 scrimmage yards and six touchdowns in five games.
Heisman ballots are distributed on Nov. 28 – three days after UCLA's regular season finale on the road against Cal – and the voting deadline is Dec. 5 – three days after the Pac-12 Football Championship Game in Las Vegas. Should Thompson-Robinson be a top-four candidate for the award by the end of the year, he will be invited to the Heisman Ceremony on Dec. 10.
The last time a UCLA player won the Heisman Trophy was when Gary Beban earned it in 1967, beating out USC running back OJ Simpson.
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