Tonight a new member will be inducted into college football’s most exclusive and most prestigious fraternity, the brotherhood of Heisman Trophy winners.
Advertisement
Derrick Henry became the second Alabama football player to win the Heisman Trophy Saturday night in NY. Henry and McCaffrey are following a line of recent Heisman finalists from Alabama and Stanford, but would be only their schools’ second victor. Watson accumulated 887 rushing yards (No. 7 in the ACC) and 11 rushing touchdowns (T-4th in ACC). Henry is 6-3, 242 pounds. A physical freak. Everyone knew that in the past two years, when he split time with T.J. Yeldon in the Tide backfield. He ran for 1,986 yards and 25 touchdowns this season.
And when he gets into the open field, his long strides make him uncatchable. “You just got to play them”.
While Sanders was often rested in the fourth quarter, had a greater share of rushing yards and hit the mark in two fewer games, McCaffrey bested Sanders’ mark in fewer touches.
There’s only one victor, however, so congratulations to Henry on a well-earned trophy and the fitting title of the nation’s most outstanding college football player. “I told coach, ‘I want the ball because I want to help the team win.’ As a running back, you’ve got to have that mentality”. “Just really, really happy for him”.
I’ve said in the past, I will rarely vote in two that play the same position, or two from the same conference.
Shoot, Henry should be given some kind of award for just making Saban smile.
But it is, and always has been, an award that seldom goes to the right player. With the way quarterbacks have won eight of the past nine awards, the stiff-armed statue should be remade in the image of a player in mid-throw.
All that considered, Watson may be at the lower end of the statistical consideration compared to the previous five winners, but he remains very much in the mix. Bush averaged 222.3 yards per game.
To his credit, coach David Shaw does not stump.
However, one of the interesting things about the three finalists that were in NY on Saturday night, McCaffrey and Watson, is that they will be returning to their respective programs next season as they are not yet eligible for the NFL Draft. “Nobody’s doing what he’s doing”.
Shaw has a point. It also provides performances bonuses of $250,000 for winning a Big 12 championship and $250,000 for reaching a New Year’s Day bowl game once each during the contract term. The Crimson Tide star had 1,892 points – 293 more points than second-place finisher Christian McCaffrey, a Stanford running back with the NCAA record for all-purpose yards in a season.
Henry also qualifies as a great teammate, said Alabama defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson. “And then once he sees it, he takes off. He’s as good with that – setting the blocks up and bursting through it – as anybody I’ve seen”.
In addition to breaking Walker’s single-season SEC rushing yards record, Henry tied Tim Tebow’s touchdown record with 23 rushing scores this season. He already beat out Watson and McCaffrey for the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top player. The last non-quarterback to win the award was Mark Ingram (RB, Alabama) in 2009.
Advertisement
Action Sports Jax Brent Martineau will be the only local reporter in New York City Saturday with reactions before and after the Heisman victor is announced.
