I had a wonderful season.
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“He’s already got my vote, so I’m very happy and I’m blessed to be around a guy like that because not everybody gets to play with a guy who’s up for the Heisman and does what he does”, Ragland said. “Exactly a year later he will be in NY as a Heisman finalist”.
However, there are at least some members of the national media that believe someone other than Henry should win the award. Henry leads the nation with 1,986 rushing yards, 339 carries and 23 touchdowns.
“Having an opportunity to meet and hang out with all of the Heisman legends that are here now is pretty special”, he said. McCaffrey broke Barry Sanders’ NCAA record for all-purpose yards in a single season in 2015 with 3,496 thus far.
He’s a bit like WD-40, duct tape, ketchup or ranch dressing: effective in a variety of uses. But when it comes to evaluating running backs, he believes the Stanford star belongs in a different category because of his versatility as a return specialist and receiver. McCaffrey’s color of his skin does not take away his playmaking ability and in fact has caught many college football fans’ attention. The 6-foot-3, 242-pound junior from Yulee, Florida, is a monster running between the tackles, leading the country in rushing yards and yards after contact. He might log that on his first kick return against Iowa in the Rose Bowl. “We’ll just have to see”, Watson said Thursday after becoming the first Clemson player ever to win the Davey O’Brien. He finished the regular season with four 200-yard games in the SEC West alone.
Where do they stack up historically? While Henry deserves it the most, all three have had fantastic seasons and deserve to be added to an elite list of college football greats. And in one game, Fournette was stuffed and Henry ran wild, racking up 210 yards and three touchdowns against LSU.
— Heisman forecast: Who wins?
Henry averaged six yards on his 349 touches this season.
Now we’re here. Seeing Watson guide his talented Clemson bunch through wins over Florida State, Notre Dame, and ultimately over the North Carolina Tar Heels in the ACC Championship game.
Comparing McCaffrey to Sanders is more complex. But that’s really the only thing ‘Bama used him for as his 97 yards receiving pale in comparison to McCaffrey’s 540. And McCaffrey is just that. Shaw, not one to stump for his team or players, stayed quiet until the end of the season, then pronounced McCaffrey the best player in the sport.
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t outstanding.
Numbers alone fail to do McCaffrey justice. That was Ricky Williams in 2002. Neither Marcus Allen in 1981 nor Tony Dorsett in 1976 eclipsed the six-yard mark.
Active players aren’t among the voters for the Heisman, of course. Make them public and risk them being revoked, they said. He has made up for an injury filled freshman year with superior play. Against Auburn, he carried the ball on 19 of 21 fourth-quarter plays while helping Alabama break open a close contest.
Two losses, eliminating Stanford from playoff contention, hurt McCaffrey’s case. Are you committing East Coast bias?
“Half of America is asleep when he does what he does”, Shaw said.
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Another monster of a running back, McCaffery would be the favorite and the third underclassmen in the last four years to win the award if not for Henry’s domination of the conference many feel is the most hard in the nation.
