JAKE’S TAKE: It may be ‘rat poison’ but the Heisman hype for Quinshon Judkins is real

Once again Ole Miss has itself another strong candidate for the Heisman Trophy in running back Quinshon Judkins.

Plenty of hype is surrounding the sophomore who is looking repeat his breaking freshman performance that earned Judkins the Southeastern Conference rushing crown, turning a lot of heads in the process.

Considered a sleeper pickup out of the high school recruiting ranks, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin personally ensured Judkins made the move from Pike Road, Alabama to Oxford — Exhibit A being the infamous photo of Kiffin sitting by himself on a cold December night watching Judkins play.

The personal touch worked and Judkins became a Rebel. Then he caused a lot of SEC coaches to experiend ‘FOMO’ or ‘Fear of missing out’ as Judkins ran through defense at will. Running for a 41-yard touchdown in the final minutes against Auburn, a school he played less than an hour away from that opted to not recruit Judkins, had to have felt good.

But after holding off Arkansas running back Raheim Sanders for the SEC rushing title in 2022 the Heisman train got rolling for Judkins and has not really slowed down in the offseason and into the summer months.

Earlier this week On3’s Jesse Simonton released his list of the Top 5 SEC players that are contenders for this year’s Heisman Trophy and Judkins was included.

That is just one list where Judkins name was included as he also was put on Athlon’s way-too-early list for Heisman Contenders back in December, six days before Ole Miss concluded its season at the Texas Bowl.

Last month Judkins name was mentioned as a bold take to win the 2023 Heisman Trophy and Kiffin responded in is trademark way of calling it rat poison.

The bulletin board material is already piling up for Judkins months ahead of the season getting underway and Kiffin is not here for any of it.

Truth is Judkins is a legitimate contender this season and will give Ole Miss another run at college football’s top honor.

Not since Eli Manning has there been potentially the program’s real Heisman Candidate all season and earning a spot in New York come December.

Quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Matt Corral gave it a good run and maybe the latter deserved more of a firm spot in the conversation in 2021, but neither made it to the Big Apple.

Judkins is that guy and, yes, there is plenty of work to be done on the field between now and early December. He still has to produce at the level many expect him to in his second season at the college level.

The knock of an underclassman not being a true contender has been thrown out the window a long time ago. Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams is the latest to prove that point wrong, winning it after his sophomore campaign.

Williams is the current odds-on favorite to win a second straight Heisman but he was the sixth player to win it their sophomore season. A trend that has only recently started.

Tim Tebow was the first to win it their second season in college, hoisting up the Heisman after his 2007 campaign. It started a streak of three straight sophomores winning the top individual accolade with Sam Bradford (2008) and Mark Ingram (2009) following Tebow’s path.

There have been eight total underclassmen to win the Heisman in its storied history with Johnny Manziel (2012) and Jameis Winston (2013) winning after their freshman seasons.

So the roadmap is laid out for Judkins but he has an uphill battle in his own conference to become a top contender. LSU quarterback Jayden Williams and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers are also in the conversation and will have strong cases for the Heisman as well if their 2023 seasons go according to expectations.

The experts in Las Vegas also have made it an uphill battle for the Ole Miss running back as far as the odds are.

But Judkins will channel his inner Han Solo, hopefully he is a Star Wars guy, and go with the ‘never tell me the odds’ mantra.

Judkins currently has odds ranging from +5000 to +8000 in the Vegas sportsbooks to win the Heisman. To put that in perspective Williams is the leader in the clubhouse with +450 to +500 odds.

In fact, Judkins is behind Georgia’s Carson Beck, who has not even been officially named the starter and successor to Stetson Bennett in Athens. Beck is currently sitting with +1800 to +2000 odds.

Again, never tell Judkins the odds.

Maybe Ole Miss will once again miss out on getting its first Heisman Trophy winner in program history, but Judkins is going to make it very difficult on the rest of the nation and I look for him to be sitting front row in New York City in six months.

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