To the surprise of very few, bruising Alabama running back Derrick Henry won the Heisman Trophy Saturday night over fellow finalists Christian McCaffrey of Stanford and Deshaun Watson of Clemson.
Advertisement
Henry is the first running back to win the Heisman Trophy since 2009, when former Alabama running back Mark Ingram became the first player in school history to win the prestigious award. Win that, and the only QB Heisman finalist will be leading his team into the national championship game against his friend Henry and No. 2 Alabama or No. 3 Michigan State.
Henry has rushed for a school- and SEC-record 1,986 yards and 23 touchdowns on 339 carries.
In the Pac-12 championship game against USC, McCaffrey accounted for 461 all-purpose yards, including a rushing, a receiving and a passing touchdown. Henry has recorded four 200-plus yard performances this year, joining Walker (Georgia) and Jackson (Auburn) as the only backs in SEC history to record four in one season.
Clemson’s quarterback Deshaun Watson finished third.
Three points were given for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one point for a third-place ballot.
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award will be presented at 8 p.m.in New York City and will be aired live on ESPN. He’s recorded more than 100 yards seven times in 2015 and scored a touchdown in all of his last 17 games dating back to 2014. He also carried the ball for 887 yards, scoring 41 total touchdowns.
The only thing left for Derrick Henry was to make it official Saturday night.
Henry was the engine that made the Alabama offense go, which in turn lifted the Crimson Tide to a 12-1 record, an SEC title, a second-place ranking, and a place in the College Football Playoffs.
Henry has been a workhorse for the Crimson Tide all season. Watson completed just under 70% of his passes for 3,512 yards. The fallout from that game: Fournette skidded out of the lead that he had held for weeks in many Heisman races, and Henry ascended.
Advertisement
Regardless of what Twitter had to say, though, congratulations to Henry. On top of that, McCaffrey even threw two touchdowns on the year, including one to his quarterback, Kevin Hogan. The conference has now claimed four of the last seven Heismans.
