Heisman Trophy finalists: Henry, McCaffery, Watson

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson holds a football as coach Dabo Swinney celebrates after Clemson defeated North Carolina 45-37 in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship NCAA college football game in Charlotte, N.C., early… The three players have separated themselves, in the opinion of voters, from the rest of the field.

“I am so happy for Deshaun Watson”.

Before playing in the college football playoffs, Alabama running back Derrick Henry will stop off this weekend in NY, where he could be taking home some valuable hardware.

Henry and McCaffrey will be trying to break a streak of five straight quarterbacks winning college football’s top honor.

On Sunday after the win over A&M, Fournette tweeted, “The insane thing is my team told me I am the Heisman victor in their eyes”. Henry surpassed 100 yards in the SEC Championship Game for the second time in his career, becoming the only player ever to do that in the title game twice.

Watson threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns and also ran for 131 yards and two scores to set ACC Championship records for total yards and touchdowns. Finalists are merely named based on the closeness of the voting.

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. His 1,847 yards rushing on 319 carries puts him second to Henry.

The numbers demonstrate that Henry’s been at his best against Alabama’s better opponents, especially since the Ole Miss loss, when the Tide had no margin for error.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) – Derrick Henry made a quick impression on his Alabama teammates upon arriving on campus as a coveted prospect with everything from his hardcore weight room workouts to those middle-of-the-night pushup sessions.

While Henry is the prototypical power runner, McCaffrey is all about elusiveness and versatility.

The vote is also expected to close, whereas the past few winners were decided by large margins, and Stanford will hope to get a bit of revenge against Alabama. In 2010 and 2011, Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck placed second to quarterback Cam Newton of Auburn and quarterback Robert Griffin of Baylor, respectively.

McCaffrey admitted he “got a little emotional”.

The 6-foot-1, 232-pound Matakevich had 126 tackles this season – including 15 for a loss – and, along with five interceptions, 4½ sacks and five pass breakups, helped lead the Owls to a surprising 10-3 record and a berth in the Boca Raton Bowl against Toledo. He finished with 3,512 yards passing (69.5 completion percentage, third best in the country), 30 touchdowns passing, 887 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns rushing.

Watson is Clemson’s first Heisman Finalist. That went to the man he’ll soon be scheming against: Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, a 32-year-old who was rumored to be a candidate for South Carolina’s head coaching position before that went to Will Muschamp.

Oh, and did I mention Watson has done all of this coming off of ACL surgery last December?