Heisman Check-in: Jayden Daniels is no longer the favorite

Daniels had one final chance to cement himself as the winner of the Heisman trophy against A&M, and while he balled out late in Saturday's game, it may have been too little too late.

On DraftKings, Bo Nix is currently -160 to take home the award with Jayden Daniels sitting at +130 odds. On FanDuel, Nix has -180 odds while Daniels has +140 odds.

In Nix's final regular season game, he completed 82-percent of his passes for 367-yards and two touchdowns while adding another 31-yards and one touchdown on the ground. Jayden Daniels put up 235 passing yards with four passing touchdowns while adding 120-yards on the ground. Daniels finished the game with just 43 less total yards and one more touchdown than NIx while doing it against the eighth ranked defense in the nation, but somehow his odds dropped pretty heavily.

Here are the two quarterback's complete regular season stats for the 2023 season:

Heisman Favorite Stats

SOS: Strength of Schedule according to ESPN FPI

Player	Jayden Daniels	Bo Nix

Passing Yards	3,812	3,906
Rushing Yards	1,134	159
Total Yards	4,946	4,065
Passing Touchdowns	40	37
Rushing Touchdowns	10	6
Total TD's	50	43
SOS	7	62

As you can see, Bo Nix currently leads Jayden Daniels in one category, passing yards. He's only 94 passing yards ahead, and he's attempted 74 more passes than Daniels this year. Nix has also seen 2,595 of his 3,906-yards come after the catch (66%) while 1,884 of Daniels' 3,812-yards came after the catch (49%).

When it comes to pushing the ball down field (one of the most important parts of being a quarterback), Nix has thrown 67% of his passes nine or fewer yards down field. Daniels has thrown only 58% of his passes nine or fewer yards down field.

On passes of 10+ yards, Nix is completing 61.6% of his passes for 1,845-yards, 26 touchdowns and two interceptions. Daniels is completing 64% of his passes for 2,310-yards, 31 touchdowns and two interceptions.

Daniels also leads the country in all of the following categories: Total yards, total touchdowns, passing touchdowns, QB rushing yards, passer rating (set NCAA record), plays for 20+ yards, QB rating, yards per passing attempt, yards per carry, yards per play, expected points added and points above average.

Daniels would also lead all of the past 11 Heisman winners in passer rating (208), yards per attempt (11.7), adjusted yards per attempt (13.6), yards per carry (8.4), total yards per play (10.7) and yards per game (412.2).

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This Heisman race is shaping up to be a really interesting one. While Vegas has Bo Nix as a pretty heavy favorite to win the award, it seems like the majority of the media thinks Jayden Daniels deserves the Heisman trophy. We've seen countless people like Kirk Herbstreit, Booger McFarland, Josh Pate and even RGIII announce they believe Daniels is the Heisman favorite.

The lone knock on Jayden Daniels is that his team has three losses, but it's not his fault he can't play defense. In those losses, the Tigers defense allowed 42, 45 and 55 points. Oregon's defense only allowed 30+ points to TWO opponents this season (they lost one of those games).

When you sit down and look at the stats, there really is no reason that Jayden Daniels shouldn't be the Heisman favorite. He is just flat out better than anyone else in the country and you can make the case that he's had a better regular season than anyone else in recent memory.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; if Jayden Daniels doesn't win the Heisman, the award will be invalidated forever and will be known as the most popular player award.