The 2023 college football season ended just three days ago, but it’s time to look ahead to next year.
It will be a long seven months before college football fans get to watch the game they love playing out on the gridiron, leaving a lot of time to discuss top players heading into 2024.
The Heisman Trophy is the most prestigious individual award in all of sports, and it will be a hotly contested award next season.
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As is always the case, the quarterbacks lead the charge in the way-too-early Heisman rankings.
Let’s take a look at the players with the best odds of taking home the 2024 Heisman Trophy, according to Caesars Sportsbook.
The Alabama Crimson Tide went on one heck of a run to end the 2023 college football season. And it was mostly due to the play of their sophomore quarterback.
After losing to Texas in Week, Nick Saban sat Jalen Milroe for Alabama’s Week 3 game against South Florida, resulting in an ugly win for the Crimson Tide.
Milroe was back under center the following week, and Alabama never looked back.
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Alabama won 11 straight games as Milroe went on a tear, throwing for 2,269 yards, 18 passing touchdowns, just four interceptions and rushing for 10 scores as the sophomore led Alabama to the SEC title and the College Football Playoff.
"The beginning of the year did not go as Milroe wanted," Caesars Sportsbook college football lead Joey Feazel told Fox News Digital. "As the year progressed, it was very clear he was the guy."
"Between that [Milroe] and Carson Beck, we think Milroe is going to make a bigger impact for that Alabama team than Carson Beck will for Georgia," Feazel added. "They’re a little more of a system-based team compared to Alabama."
On Wednesday night, the college football world received bombshell news that Alabama head coach Nick Saban would retire after 17 seasons at Alabama, according to multiple reports. Saban won six championships with the Crimson Tide and one while the head coach at LSU.
While Quinn Ewers has not announced whether he intends to enter the 2024 NFL Draft or return for his junior season, ESPN reported in early December that his return to Texas had "increased exponentially in the past few weeks."
If Ewers returns, he’ll be one of the favorites to take home the Heisman Trophy after leading the Longhorns to their first appearance in the College Football Playoff.
"I expect him to return to Texas," Feazel said of Ewers. "I think this is a very deep quarterback draft class. There’s going to be a lot of competition, and he would be a later-round draft pick. I think he still needs some time to develop."
"They had a disappointing end to the season, obviously," Feazel added. "One play away from getting there [to the CFP title game]. So, I think that’s going to be fresh on his mind. I expect him to return. And if he does, Texas still has a lot of talent around them. They're still in the conversation for a national championship next year. I expect, if he does return, that he’s going to make a big impact."
Despite missing two games due to a shoulder injury, Ewers finished the year with 3,479 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions. His completion percentage rose dramatically between his freshman and sophomore seasons, completing 69% of his passes after finishing the 2022 season with a 58.1% completion percentage.
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Texas is entering the SEC in 2024, so the schedule will be significantly tougher for the Longhorns next season.
The situation in the quarterback room could get interesting with five-star recruit Arch Manning waiting in the wings.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning just had a quarterback in New York for the Heisman ceremony.
With the departure of Bo Nix, Lanning went out and landed another Heisman-caliber QB as former Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel will play his final year of eligibility in Eugene.
Gabriel will also play for his third college team after beginning his career at UCF. He threw for more than 3,000 yards in 2022 and 2023 and led the Sooners to a 10-2 record in 2023.
The senior QB will now play for an Oregon team primed to make a run at the national title and in an offense that should allow him to thrive.
In 2023, Oregon was second in the country in yards (531.4) and points per game (44.2), resulting in Nix being one of the four finalists for the Heisman.
"I think it will give him a major boost," Feazel said when asked about Gabriel's move to Oregon for his Heisman chances. "I think we saw what it did to Bo Nix. I wouldn't say anybody would have said Bo Nix was an elite quarterback when he was playing at Auburn. And obviously, he was a completely different person in that system with Oregon. So, I expect Dillon Gabriel to come out of the gate pretty strong."
"What's going to be interesting, too, with Dante Moore going back to Oregon, that's going to add some competition, and he's going to have to be playing his best in order to win that job."
There was some debate over whether Carson Beck would return to Georgia for his senior season as he considered the NFL Draft.
Beck will return to a Georgia team destined to be in the top 5 to start the 2024 season.
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In his first season as the starter, Beck led the Bulldogs to the SEC Championship Game after throwing for 3,941 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions.
"I think the biggest thing that factored in my decision was just the chemistry and the connection in our locker room and just the standard that we’ve set at Georgia. … I’ve enjoyed every step of the way, every single game. Getting to go out there and do what I love," Beck said of his decision to return, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.
The Arizona Wildcats are on the rise under head coach Jedd Fisch.
In their final season in the Pac-12 before heading to the Big 12, the Wildcats made a massive leap in Fisch’s third season as head coach in Tucson. Arizona finished the year on a seven-game winning streak, including a win over No. 12 Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl.
Sophomore Noah Fifita took over as quarterback in Arizona’s fourth game of the season after Jayden de Laura was injured the week prior.
Fifita finished the regular season with 2,515 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions as Arizona entered the Associated Press Rankings for the first time since 2017.
The Wildcats own the nation’s second-longest winning streak, behind Michigan.
Jaxson Dart will return for his senior season in Oxford, and some newcomers will join him.
After throwing for 3,364 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2023, Dart and Ole Miss will enter the 2024 season with high expectations after Lane Kiffin hit the transfer portal hard.
Kiffin signed 12 players via the portal and has Ole Miss at the top of the 2024 247 Sports transfer portal rankings. Kiffin signed former four-star receiver Antwane Wells, who spent the last two years at South Carolina.
Dart cut his turnovers by more than half in 2023 and is also a threat on the ground, rushing for 389 yards and eight touchdowns.
Others in the mix:
Garrett Nussmeier, LSU Tigers: +1500
Will Howard, Ohio State: +1600
Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee: +1800
J.J. McCarthy, Michigan Wolverines: +2000
Riley Leonard, Notre Dame Fighting Irish: +2200
