A white running back at the college level and higher has become a rarity in recent years, although Stanford’s Toby Gerhart, also white, was a Heisman finalist in 2009 when he finished runner-up to Alabama’s Mark Ingram.
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He ran for 189 yards and a touchdown on 44 carries in the Alabama’s SEC championship game victory against Florida on Saturday. McCaffrey has 410 all-purpose touches, a total that doesn’t include a touchdown pass he threw in the Pac-12 championship game.
He’s 16-0 as starter for Clemson, and passed for more than more than 400 yards in Saturday’s shootout win against North Carolina for the conference title.
Henry broke Herschel Walker’s SEC record for rushing yards in a season, and McCaffrey shattered Barry Sanders’ all-purpose yards in a season.
In what was being considered a Heisman Trophy elimination game against the Alabama Crimson Tide and their workhorse back Derrick Henry, Fournette and the Tigers fell flat on their face. Mayfield has transitioned from a walk-on to one of the nation’s best players. His size makes him hard to stop and he has the endurance to take more than 40 carries in a game. He ranks eighth nationally in passer rating, completing 69.2 percent of his passes for 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. In fact, because a minimum of three finalists are always named, we don’t know for sure if the third-place vote-getter is even close to No. 2. McCaffrey is second in leading rushes in the FBS at 1,847 yards.
Henry is joined by Clemson quarterback DeShaun Watson and Stanford running back and return specialist Christian McCaffrey. The players that are invited to NY are the ones who have separated themselves from the rest of the field by collecting the most votes.
There will be three finalists for the 2015 Heisman Trophy, which will be awarded on December 12 in New York City.
Boiling down the combination of production and competition, a reasonable person might create a final list of five top candidates: Cook, Fournette, Henry, McCaffrey and Watson.
Highlights: Henry leads the country in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.
Watson and No. 1 Clemson could meet Henry and Alabama in the national championship game.
“To be the single season LSU record holder for rushing yards, I think that was quite an accomplishment for him, really for anybody”, Miles said. “Let’s hope he keeps playing running back”.
“You win the Heisman in November, got to win 10 games”, Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com’s national college football reporter, said earlier this year.
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As for the three finalists, they all had remarkable seasons, making this the toughest Heisman victor to predict in several years.
