Ohio State Football: How does Young’s situation impact Heisman race?

Ohio State football’s Chase Young is not playing against Maryland and could miss more games due to a possible NCAA violation. Is the Heisman race affected?

Defensive end Chase Young said in a tweet on Friday that he accepted a loan from a family friend in 2018 and has already paid it all back. Young, however, is still missing Ohio State football’s game against Maryland on Saturday and could possibly miss more pending an investigation.

Young was in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race as he has 13.5 sacks on the season and was just coming off a four-sack performance against Wisconsin. So, if he misses some games how does that impact the Heisman race?

According to The Action Network, Young did not even have Heisman odds two weeks ago but opened 20-1 and then one week later was 8-1, which was the fourth-best odds to win the award.

Now The Action Network has reported that several sportsbooks have completely taken Young’s odds off their boards.

If Young is no longer considered a candidate, then that means his teammate, quarterback Justin Fields now has the fourth-best odds as he sits at 12-1, according to The Action Network. Above Fields is Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with 3-1 odds, Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts with 5-2 odds, and then LSU quarterback Joe Burrow has the best odds as he sits at 6-5.

I honestly don’t think this impacts the Heisman race at all. Only defensive player to ever win the award was Michigan defensive back Charles Woodson and he even played wide receiver from time to time.

As much as I wanted to see Young have a chance to win it, and as much as I think he deserves a chance to win it, I don’t think he had a real chance at all. The voters are enamored with offense, specifically quarterbacks, so I just don’t think Young would have been given the opportunity to win it. For Ohio State’s sake, though, hopefully Young comes back soon.