Saturday night against USC, playing in the Pac-12 championship game, McCaffrey broke the record for the most all-purpose yards in a single season set by the player he grew up idolizing.
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No. 6 Stanford vs. No. 5 Iowa, Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.), Jan. 1, 3 p.m. MST, ESPN • The Cardinal did what it could in the Pac-12 title game, beating up on USC 41-22, but the other chips didn’t fall its way as Alabama, Clemson and Michigan State all won their way into the playoff.
Southern California coach Clay Helton fired four of the Trojans’ assistant coaches Sunday night, including defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox.
“In my opinion, he should win the Heisman”, USC linebacker Su’a Cravens said.
Martin was the quarterback for Tennessee’s 1998 national championship team, and had a four-year NFL career.
According to Christian McCaffrey’s mother Lisa, his childhood bedroom was filled with posters of Barry Sanders. They played their first five games without a healthy coach who was eventually fired, in late October they were 3-3 with an interim coach, by the end of autumn they had lost two centers and two starting linebackers… the place was a mess.
“Team captain Blake Martinez, who forced a fumble that led to Solomon Thomas” 34-yard touchdown return, worked with McCaffrey as co-interns at a commercial real-estate firm last summer.
Of course, Barry Sanders’ 1988 mark of 3,250 was set in 11 games, without the addition of his 222 yards in Oklahoma State’s Holiday Bowl blowout of Wyoming. However, it was much more competitive than the 41-22 final score indicates.
Many feel Haden, having formally given the permanent coaching job to Helton last week, should give up his stressful position to serve in a more statesman-like capacity, such as running the Coliseum renovations.
USC athletic director Pat Haden announced that Helton had signed a multi-year contract as the Trojans official head coach prior to the Pac-12 title game.
The Trojans were only 4-11 (36%) on third down and it came mainly from the first half.
Asked whether Haden made firing certain assistants a condition of his hiring, Helton said, “This was entirely my decision”, adding that Haden “has given me the right to run this football team exactly with the vision I see”. “I didn’t know until five minutes before I walked up here”.
The only thing McCaffrey couldn’t pull off was an upset in one of the other conference championship games that could have sent the Cardinal to the playoff. McCaffrey escaped his coverage for a 67-yard catch, and Hogan scored on a 7-yard keeper on the next play to put the Cardinal back in front, 20-16. But two more scores by McCaffrey put the game out of reach for the Trojans. In my opinion the Pac 12 Championship game was McCaffrey’s Heisman moment.
But Stanford was stung by red-zone penalties, and coach David Shaw curiously chose to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal at the 1. “We’ll go where they tell us to go”.
McCaffrey ran, passed and also threw for a touchdown. The Ducks are winners of six straight to end the year and are averaging almost 45 points per game in that span. They play in the Alamo Bowl against TCU.
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Yeah, Deshaun Watson is good and Derrick Henry is nothing to sneer at, but it’s the forgotten running back from the West Coast who is the most outstanding player in college football this season, and it’s not close.
