Prior to his alma mater’s state football championship game this past Saturday – just hours before McCaffrey slapped 461 all-purpose yards on Southern Cal – Rod Sherman, the coach of Valor Christian High School, spoke about the importance of being a multisport athlete, about being well-rounded and experiencing as many things as one possibly could in high school (by the way, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Mark Kiszla’s fantastic article on specialization in high school sports).
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Alabama running back Derrick Henry, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson were named the three finalists for the Heisman Trophy on Monday. The Tigers were 7-0 and No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The pure sophomore is from Gainesville, GA.
McCaffrey finished the season with 1,847 yards rushing (second most in the FBS), 1,109 yards returning, 540 yards receiving and 14 total touchdowns (eight rushing, four receiving and two passing). Needless to say, he is the nation’s leader in terms of all-purpose yards, but Henry is the nation’s leading rusher.
If the Heisman Trophy was awarded today, the victor should be Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, hands down. Henry leads the nation with 1,986 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns for the second-ranked Crimson Tide, who are in the College Football Playoff for the second straight year. Dylan, who will be a senior next year is a quarterback and has thrown for 5227 yards in three seasons and 49 touchdowns. He ran for 189 yards and a touchdown on 44 carries in the Alabama’s Southeastern Conference championship game victory against Florida on Saturday. After several seconds looking for a receiver, he tucked the ball down and headed right toward the defender near the goal line on the fourth-down play. He broke the single-season SEC rushing record, an impressive feat, considering the conference’s rich history of running backs.
He is also the only player in the nation to lead his team in both rushing yards and receiving yards. Alabama has had four running backs drafted in the first two rounds since 2011, including first-rounders Ingram and Trent Richardson. He also has quite the arm, tossing two touchdowns this season. According to the Mercury News, McCaffrey has quite possibly taken control of the Heisman after breaking Barry Sanders’ single-season NCAA record for all-purpose yards.
Deshaun Watson is Clemson’s first Heisman finalist and thus would be the school’s first Heisman victor.
LSU running back Leonard Fournette and Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield did not receive a nomination. All Heisman winners perform well in big games and Watson has not disappointed this year.
McCaffrey, who has never been to New York City, noted that he probably would have to prepare an acceptance speech for Saturday night, just in case.
Bourret said Watson’s finals will be over by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
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Even if I put my local biased aside, McCaffrey seems to be everything a college football player should be – everything.
