Alabama’s bulldozing tailback claims Heisman Trophy

He also got to spend Friday and Saturday taking in the sights and sounds of his first trip to the Big Apple, like Central Park and Times Square.

Likewise, Stanford produced a terrific website trumpeting McCaffrey and had a savvy promotion campaign on social media, but it didn’t begin in earnest until November 10. “If you have dreams, chase them and God will be with you every step of the way”, Henry said.

Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield was fourth, followed by Navy’s Keenan Reynolds and LSU’s Leonard Fournette. After that, rushers like Florida State’s Dalvin Cook and Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott lingered in the Heisman discussion, while quarterbacks across the country failed to gain enough notoriety.

Not including Alabama – who had the No. 1 rush defense in the nation – eight other SEC schools finished in the top 50 in run defense.

“One of the things that pleases me about Derrick being recognized as being the outstanding player in college football by winning this award is sometimes as a coach you look at what does a particular player do for his team”, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. Sanders set that record back in 1988.

No. 2 Alabama and No. 18 Baylor have the most players on the first team with three apiece. Watson received the third-most points for a third-place finisher with 1,165.

This year, however, it was a hard choice between Alabama’s Derrick Henry and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey for the top spot.

To his mother, who urged him not to transfer from Alabama after a freshman season that saw Henry get only 28 carries: “You’re my best friend, you are always there for me, I love you”. I’ve talked with the Heisman victor several times, whether it be one-on-one or in a pre or post-game setting.

Although there had been discussion that more players should have been in NY for Saturday night’s presentation, the final vote showed that it was truly a three-man race.

Henry’s 293-point margin is the smallest since Alabama’s Mark Ingram beat Stanford’s Toby Gerhart in 2009. For two seasons Henry backed up starting rusher T.J. Yeldon at Alabama, biding his time in Tuscaloosa. But I saw Ozzie Newsome make acrobatic catches and watched Cornelius Bennett track runners down from sideline to sideline and witnessed Derrick Thomas scare quarterbacks senseless. McCaffrey is second at 1,847 yards.

That seemed to be a boon for Alabama’s Henry, a sturdy tailback who has 1,986 yards rushing, the most in FBS. He’s at 3,496 total yards, and he and the Cardinal still have a Rose Bowl matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes left.

FILE – In this Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015, file photo, Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib (95) celebrates his second half interception with defensive end Garrett Sickels (90) during an NCAA college football game against Buffalo in State College, Pa. Nassib has been named to the AP All-America football team. He also carried the ball for 887 yards, scoring 41 total touchdowns.

Still, it stings a bit that Greene’s wonderful Iowa season came in a year where he couldn’t crack the national psyche the way the quarterbacks did that season.