Week 1 of college football is in the books and there’s a new leader in the Heisman race.
Miami quarterback Darian Mensah is now the favorite to win the Heisman after an electric debut this weekend against Stanford.
Mensah entered the week with 12/1 odds to win the Heisman at BetMGM, tied with Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin for the fourth-best odds behind Notre Dame’s CJ Carr, Texas’ Arch Manning and Oregon’s Dante Moore.
Now, the junior signal caller has jumped way ahead of his contemporaries and has +550 odds to win the Heisman while the rest of the field is 10/1 or longer, with Carr now second on the board behind Mensah.
A near perfect passing performance spurred Mensah to the top spot after Week 1. He finished the day 27-of-30 with 401 passing yards, five touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 98.1 QBR — ESPN’s all-in-one metric that measures quarterback performances on a 0-100 scale.
Mensah had big shoes to fill following current Arizona Cardinals rookie quarterback Carson Beck after he led Miami to the College Football Playoff national championship game. His steady rise from a three-star recruit who started his college career at Tulane to one of the feel-good stories in the ACC last season with Duke has put him in position to assert himself among a loaded field of good college football quarterbacks.
Mensah made waves before even joining the Hurricanes in the offseason after Duke sued him earlier this year to prevent him from entering the transfer portal after he declared his intent to leave on the final day of eligibility. The two parties eventually settled the dispute, which cleared the way for Mensah to join Miami.
While it’s still very early, Mensah has set himself up for a breakout season on a massive stage with Miami among the top-five teams on the national championship odds.
The Hurricanes have +900 odds to win the national title and it’s clear that they’ll need more standout performances from their star quarterback to reach that goal.
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Malik Smith has been immersed in the sports betting industry since 2017. He’s a data nerd with a particular focus on the NBA and combat sports. He spends his weeknights in the winter looking for edges on plus-money NBA player props.
