Derrick Henry could become SEC’s 12th Heisman victor

McCaffrey finished second in all regions except the one he won and the mid-Atlantic, where Clemson’s Watson was second. If you want to knock Henry’s lack of receptions, that’s fine, but the fact of the matter is he has carried his team back to the brink of a national championship. You could have also talked me into Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, who had 35 touchdowns and 3,389 yards passing. That is the new single season record for the SEC.

“Now I know what it takes”, McCaffrey said about becoming a finalist, “following with anything less than that is unacceptable for me”.

Henry tallied 1,832 points to beat two other finalists, Stanford running back and kick returner Christian McCaffrey (1,539 points) and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson (1,165). In terms of total yards, this advantage becomes more apparent: McCaffrey’s received for 540 yards compared to Henry’s paltry 97 yards (and, yes, that means that McCaffrey has more than QUINTUPLED the yards of Henry in the receiving game).

It will be the 81st time the trophy has been awarded, and if Henry wins, it would make it an even dozen for the SEC. Stanford managed to win the game and upset the Irish, but unfortunately for McCaffrey, he didn’t play a huge role in the win. Henry broke Herschel Walker’s SEC record for rushing yards in a single season, and has tied the record for rushing touchdowns in a season. He rushed for over 200 yards in four of his last six SEC games, including 46 carries for 271 yards in the Iron Bowl.

“Christian just made Colorado a better place”, Bonn said. He stands 6’3, weighing in at 242 pounds, the prototype bruiser of a running back. He also has 887 yards with 11 touchdowns on the ground.

With that in mind, you have to believe that both the all-purpose king in McCaffrey and the dual-threat stalwart in Watson will again be in thick of things as far as the race for the 2016 Heisman Trophy goes.

Like Walker, Sanders was considered among the all-time greats in college football thanks to his terrific 1988 campaign with 3,250 total yards. “If that were to happen, it would be an extremely emotional moment for me for sure”.

Mark Ingram, Jr. was Alabama’s only Heisman recipient to-date. He shrugged at the workload, feeling it was needed with running back Kenyan Drake suffering a fractured arm on November 22. “I’m just so thankful”, Henry said at the podium after being presented the trophy. It is the oldest of several football awards for college football. A record that stood for 27 years (good luck to the voters trying determine which record breaking season was better…see Derrick Henry above). But he was the quarterback and leader of the undefeated No. 1 team in the country, and despite all their talent, the Buckeyes wouldn’t have been the Buckeyes without Smith. For two seasons Henry backed up starting rusher T.J. Yeldon at Alabama, biding his time in Tuscaloosa. 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.