Henry, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound junior with 1,986 rushing yards, seems to be the front-runner in a Heisman race that tightened over championship weekend.
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The last time there was real suspense at the Heisman presentation was 2009, when Ingram received only 1 percent more of the vote than Stanford’s Toby Gerhart.
He had 189 yards and a touchdown in the SEC Championship Game, a 29-15 win over Florida.
For the season, Watson has 3512 passing yards with 30 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Deshaun Watson is Clemson’s first Heisman finalist and thus would be the school’s first Heisman victor. He has led the Clemson offense to produce over 500 yards of offense in nine straight contests dating back to the Tigers’ game against Georgia Tech on October 10 and compiled four 100-yard rushing games over the last five weeks. McCaffrey scorched the Trojans defense for 207 rushing yards and a touchdown, 105 receiving yards and a score, while also adding a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
But as favorites struggled (running backs Leonard Fournette of LSU and Ezekiel Elliott of Ohio State) or got hurt (quarterbacks Trevone Boykin of TCU and Seth Russell of Baylor), the dynamic changed.
Henry will be joined in NY by his parents and two of his high school coaches.
Now, most years, there’s one candidate who appears to be above the rest, but this year’s Heisman vote could be one of the closest in recent history.
The 2015 Heisman Trophy finalists were announced Monday night, and the list was short and sweet, with just three players eligible to be named the top overall college football player.
Clemson and Alabama are ranked first and second in the College Football Playoff standings.
If you can’t get behind a resume like that (keep in mind the statistics have changed just a little since the North Carolina game), I don’t know what you do.
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Historical significance is hard to gauge in the present tense, but in the years to come, as we’re granted the clarity and perspective that only time can provide, I’m certain McCaffrey’s 2015 season will be considered a measuring stick by which other outstanding seasons are judged. His 4,399 yards of total offense was fourth-best nationally while his combined 41 touchdowns running and passing was second-best among Power 5 conferences. His 3,496 all-purpose yards broke the record set by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders in 1988. So it’s not like there’s a backlash against Nick Saban’s players. Clemson has a ideal 13-0 record. Special teams are always important, but you usually don’t see special teams make quite as much of an impact on a game as this one, especially in the first half.
