North Carolina Tar Heels: Hood for Heisman?
Vegas says the North Carolina Tar Heels have a long shot Heisman candidate in their backfield.
Is it too early to put Heisman Hype and North Carolina Tar Heels in the same sentence? Is it too early for Vegas to making betting lines for potential Heisman candidates? If you felt that was true then then look out, because Westgate Oddsmakers has its Superbook for Heisman odds out and yes there is a Tar Heel among them.
No that Tar Heel is not junior quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who many expect to have a big season. Unlike his predecessor Marquise Williams, Trubisky was recruited for the Fedora spread. He’s had three years to learn the system and he inherits most of the weapons that Williams had to play with last year.
Vegas is instead eyeing junior tailback Elijah Hood as a candidate with odds of about 50-1. Hood had a monster season last year on the ground. The Charlotte Catholic product scored seventeen rushing touchdowns and averaged seven yards a carry. His 1463 rushing yard season was the best by a running back at North Carolina since Mike Voight in 1976.
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Hood may benefit from a few things in a potential Heisman campaign. First, the Tar Heel offensive linemen will be stack with veterans across the unit. Second, the graduation of Marquise Williams may signal less reliance on the quarterback run. It will not disappear from the offense, but the number of quarterback carries should decrease.
There is also the chance that the defense will be better equipped in the second year of the Gene Chizik system. A better defense leads to more stops and more offensive possessions. The Tar Heels would actually be scary if they ever held opponents down while they were scoring lots of points.
Hood’s final ally will be the schedule. There are big time games like Georgia and Florida State to attract voter eye balls, but there are also stat stuffing games like the Citadel and James Madison where Hood could make a big number bigger assuming the offense is not benched at halftime.
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Hood will get his first shot against Georgia on September 3 in Atlanta.