Jalen Hurts primed to be Lincoln Riley’s next Heisman Trophy winner

4. Oklahoma will win a lot of games 

Much like the MVP trophy in professional sports, the Heisman Trophy, barring absurd outlier seasons, goes to the best player on one of the best teams.

Since 1990, only three Heisman Trophy winners played on teams that won less than ten games: 1998 Ricky Williams at Texas, 2007 Tim Tebow at Florida, and 2016 Lamar Jackson at Louisville. Each of their teams won nine games in those seasons.

Since the inception of the College Football Playoff, Lamar Jackson is the only Heisman winner whose team did not make the playoff.

That means that most likely the Heisman winner in 2019 will play on a playoff team, and Oklahoma with Hurts in the fold will be favored to win the Big 12 and make the College Football Playoff for the third year in a row and fourth time in five years.

Even with Texas’ resurgence under Tom Herman, the Sooners will be heavy favorites to win the Big 12 next year, and will open either No. 3 or No. 4 in the preseason polls.

Oklahoma’s schedule is very manageable, with a home game against Houston and a road tilt at UCLA highlighting their out-of-conference schedule. They get the yearly neutral-site affair against Texas in Dallas and play Oklahoma State on the road to finish the regular season, but they get West Virginia, Iowa State, and TCU all at home.

If they can navigate their way around the Longhorns in Dallas as well as winning Bedlam, there’s a good chance the Sooners will arrive at the conference title game with an unblemished record. Even with one loss, there’s a strong chance that a Big 12 Championship would life them into the playoff, where they might well face a rematch with Alabama – a Jalen vs. Tua affair befitting the silver screen.

If Oklahoma wins at the level they are projected to, then Hurts will undoubtedly shoulder a load of the praise, and be in the mix for the Heisman as a result.