But Ingram was the only player in Alabama history to have won the award until Henry took the trophy Saturday night.
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The final vote had parallels to Alabama’s first Heisman win in 2009, when Mark Ingram took home the trophy in the closest vote ever, over a Stanford running back (Toby Gerhart) and the quarterback of an undefeated team (Colt McCoy).
Watson said building friendships with Henry and McCaffrey were the most memorable takeaway from this experience. Watson completed almost 70 percent of his passes to turn the Tigers into an offensive powerhouse that put up 37 points or more in eight games this fall.
College football’s highest honor may be given out to either Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, or Alabama running back Derrick Henry.
Butch Dill-USA TODAY SportsAlabama Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry (2) celebrates with head coach Nick Saban following their win over the Florida Gators 29-15 in the 2015 SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome.
Henry also became the first non-quarterback to win the Heisman since 2009. “I never thought I’d be up here”, Henry said. The best player in college football was once just a small-town kid in north Florida who idolized the greats of the sport; he studied the games of Earl Campbell, Walter Payton and Adrian Peterson. This is the 5th time in the last seven seasons that a player from Alabama has been a Heisman finalist.
Derrick Henry powered his way to the 2015 Heisman Trophy.
“When you meet him in the hole”, Ragland says now, “you better bring everything you’ve got”.
“If you’re in a program like Texas, for example, and you’re going to have National Football League players, I don’t think you can redshirt them anymore”, said Mack Brown, the former Longhorns coach who is an analyst for ESPN. While it’s hard to hold things of that nature against McCaffrey, it will likely have an impact on the amount of first place votes the Cardinals star running back receives. He passed for 3,512 yards and 30 touchdowns and then stepped up his running late in the season to total another 887 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns.
McCaffrey finished second in the nation in rushing with 1,847 yards.
Granted, he did it in 13 games, two more than Walker, but Henry also matched the SEC record of 23 rushing touchdowns shared with Tim Tebow and Tre Mason during his 189-yard performance against the Gators. 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. I’m just very confident.
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Henry’s numbers are better; in fact, better than any other Crimson Tide runner.
