He is the only player in the nation with at least 800 yards rushing and 3,500 yards passing. He had 38 runs for 210 yards and three touchdowns. But, he’s not done there, as he also returns kicks for the Cardinal adding another 1,042 yards on 36 kick returns and a touchdown to boot as well as 14 punt returns for 67 yards. Henry passed Herschel Walker during the SEC Championship Game.
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Watson was the head of one of the nation’s most well rounded and potent offenses. McCaffrey was an all-purpose yardage machine, racking up an FBS record 3,496 yards.
McCaffrey, a sophomore, gained more national attention the second half of the season. Among receivers with 70 or more catches, he’s No. 1 in yards per, with 18.42 giving him 1,363 total. As recently as last week, and as was pointed out in Michael Jaycox’s plea for McCaffrey, sportsinsights.com only gave the local product the eighth best odds to win.
Case For: Deshaun Watson has been the catalyst of the undefeated Clemson Tigers offense. Along the way, the dual-threat quarterback made life a nightmare for opposing defenses. His average yards per game for the season stands at 152.8, but it’s an NCAA-best 180.1 against top 25 foes.
But when it comes to telling legendary names to “move over, ” Henry has got nothing on McCaffrey.
Watson, who guided the Red Elephants to the Class AAAAA state title in 2012, has thrown for 3,512 yards and 30 touchdowns through the air, while rushing for 977 yards and another 11 scores for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Early in the year, it seemed as if Georgia Bulldogs running back Nick Chubb and LSU Tigers running back Leonard Fournette were destined to lead a two-man race for the award.
Henry has blazed through school and SEC records in 2015, his first season as the primary running back. But 461 yards against USC changed things, and, in a real testament to simply how good he was this season, McCaffrey is right in the mix to win the award despite his team finishing outside of the top four. Deshaun Watson did not collapse with his mother’s diagnosis. That, in a nutshell, is what’s still fun about college football – let a star be a star, and get him the ball any and every way possible. He had surgery to fix a torn ACL last December and entered this season dragging the injury-prone label alongside his Heisman potential. All Heisman winners perform well in big games and Watson has not disappointed this year.
The Heisman selection show is certainly a gaudy, exasperating affair for viewers, but it means the world to the players selected to attend. The only knock on Henry’s candidacy is that he’s not a quarterback, but the other components of his resume are strong enough to overcome that. In all this season, Henry has accounted for 38% of the yards from scrimmage for the Tide when you include his 10 receptions for 97 yards.
Henry is a significant favorite to win.
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The official Heisman ballots are in, but now it’s time to cast your vote in our annual People’s Heisman poll.
