The No. 5 Cincinnati Bearcats demolished the lowly Temple Owls on Friday night at Nippert Stadium, and UC quarterback Desmond Ridder continued to make his case as a legitimate threat to win the 2021 Heisman Trophy. Ridder entered this weekend’s play at +1200 to win the award at DraftKings Sportsbook.
The sixth-year senior Ridder was 22-30 for 259 yards and three touchdowns without an interception in the Bearcats 52-3 win over the Owls at home. Cincinnati finished with 542 yards of total offense without a turnover, and averaged 8.5 yards per play.
It’s nice for Ridder to get the stage and spotlight of having a nationally-televised game that’s basically the only meaningful football on cable television this evening, and while his stats were solid, they weren’t so overwhelming as to raise eyebrows with voters that weren’t watching.
That’s part of the issue with Ridder’s case: UC’s offense actually does things like huddle, which is going to artificially depress his raw numbers compared to some of his quarterback competition (see Corral, Matt).
But some big numbers against both Central Florida and SMU in the two key games left on the Bearcats schedule can certainly still play him into the room in New York City in December.