Texas Football: Bijan Robinson an early Heisman favorite for 2021

An amazing finish to his true freshman campaign last fall proved that Texas football RB Bijan Robinson could be a real Heisman contender in 2021.

Heading into a key 2021 offseason for newly hired head coach (and former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator/Broyles Award winner) Steve Sarkisian and this Texas football program, focusing on building up a new look roster for next season is a huge task at hand. Texas is due to lose a good number of starters from the 2020 squad on both sides of the ball.

One potential area of stability for the Longhorns is at the skill positions. Texas is due to get back a good portion of their running backs and tight ends from the 2020 roster, maybe outside of junior rusher Keaontay Ingram. But almost the entire tight end room looks to be coming back in 2021. And the standout running back combination of freshman Bijan Robinson and sophomore Roschon Johnson is due back for next season.

A lot of excitement will continue to build around the potential of the ground game, behind the duo of Johnson and Robinson, for 2021. There is already a lot of hype generating for the latter of those two in the early Heisman odds for the 2021 season.

Early Heisman odds for the 2021 campaign (per sportsbetting.ag) have Robinson ranked among the top three running backs and the top 10 players overall, at +1600. The only other running backs given better odds than Robinson on this list were Alabama’s Brian Robinson Jr. and Iowa State’s Breece Hall.

Most of the others ranked ahead of Robinson in the early Heisman odds were all quarterbacks. Topping the list was the Oklahoma Sooners to-be third-year quarterback and former five-star recruit Spencer Rattler. Other common quarterbacks to see in top 10’s of early Heisman odds lists are Georgia’s JT Daniels, Miami’s D’Eriq King, and UNC’s Sam Howell, among a few others.

Down the stretch this season, the Longhorns got amazingly efficient play out of Robinson in both the ground and receiving game. On the season in total, Robinson registered 703 rushing yards (more than eight yards per carry), four rushing touchdowns, and 196 receiving yards and two touchdown catches.

It was the final two games of the 2020 campaign where Robinson really took center stage. He registered 355 rushing yards (18.7 yards per carry), four rushing scores, 88 receiving yards (17.2 yards per catch), and both of his touchdown catches on the season.

Robinson helped the Longhorns finish up with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12), including wins in five of their last six games. Their final game resulted in a dominant 55-23 win over the Colorado Buffaloes in the Alamo Bowl back on Dec. 29.