Desmond Howard on C.J. Stroud's Heisman favorite status: I don't get it

If given the choice for his Heisman pick right now, Desmond Howard would be picking Alabama’s Bryce Young over Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and, well, anybody else.

Speaking on College Football Live, Howard — a former Heisman winner and a Michigan alum who took a poke at the Buckeyes at the 2021 ceremony — said he doesn’t understand why Stroud would be a frontrunner ahead of the returning Heisman winner. He thinks Stroud can surely make up ground and win it, but right now, it’s Young versus the field for Howard.

“Well, first I would like to say that I don’t think that anybody should be the frontrunner except Bryce Young,” Howard said. “Because he’s the returning winner of the Heisman. So I don’t think that C.J. Stroud or even anybody else should be even neck-to-neck right now with Bryce Young. I think that when you look at C.J. Stroud, he’s gonna have some big games, open up the season against Notre Dame. So that’s a marquee matchup. But just at the beginning, with no games played, for him to be the favorite? I just don’t get it.”

During the ESPN segment, odds for the trophy from Caesar’s Sportsbook were displayed and Stroud was the betting favorite (+200) over Young (+430). Caleb Williams, the sophomore USC quarterback, was third at +700. Then OSU running back TreVeyon Henderson (+2000) and Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson (+2200) in a distant fourth and fifth.

With the opener against Notre Dame on Sept. 3 and surely more marquee matchups along the way, Stroud can surely put in a season worthy of being named the “most outstanding player in college football.”

But the way Howard sees it, no one should be on the same plane as Young right now.

“He’s gonna have some marquee games, like I said, to be able to catch Bryce Young,” Howard said. “But I think Bryce Young, right now, for me — as a former winner and a guy who’s a voter — it’s Bryce Young against the field.”