Alabama RB Henry wins Heisman Trophy

On Saturday night, Alabama running back Derrick Henry was awarded the 2015 Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding player in college football, beating Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, who finished second, and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, who finished third.

Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey finished second in the balloting, followed by quarterback DeShaun Watson of Clemson.

Henry will lead No. 2 Alabama into the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve, where it will face third-ranked Michigan State, while No. 1 Clemson faces fourth-ranked Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl in Miami.

The 81st Heisman victor was announced on December 12.

Henry, who continued that lineage under the Nick Saban regime that began in 2007, put up impressive numbers, but they were hardly exceptional. That’s why Henry was given so many rushing attempts and finished with a season-best 271 yards. “Henry is a great back but he is part of a great team and system”. But Heismans are often won in November. He racked up 3,512 yards with 41 touchdowns and 163 carriers.

Aside from games against Louisiana Monroe and Charleston Southern, Henry had at least 22 carries in each of Alabama’s last 10 games. And I’ve never seen anything quite like Derrick Henry. But in the teams’ head-to-head matchup, Henry shined as the SEC’s brightest star running back and elevated his game in what was already a dominant season. His mother, Lisa McCaffrey, played soccer at Stanford from 1987 to 1990, and his father, Ed McCaffrey, played football at Stanford from 1986-1991, and then spent a majority of his 13-season professional career with the Broncos as a teammate of Cardinal legend, John Elway.

Mark Ingram, Alabama, 2009: The sophomore had 1,992 yards from scrimmage (1,658 rushing) and scored 20 touchdowns (17 rushing) for the Crimson Tide, who went 14-0 and beat Texas in the BCS National Championship Game.

“So “deserving” is a hard word”, Shaw said. Anytime there are people who vote, you can’t say the word ‘deserve.’ You say who wins and who doesn’t win. McCaffrey is the only candidate from the pacific side of America that had a chance to win the award.

In his speech, Henry talked about how much he values his team and everyone in it. “Coming into Alabama from Florida, they all accepted me”. In the same game, Alabama’s Henry thrashed LSU for 210 yards and three scores on 38 rushes, as the Tide came out on top 30-16. I saw Chris Samuels bully defensive linemen, Shawn Alexander glide down the field with the grace of an Olympic speed skater and David Palmer make tacklers look silly. In that game, he gained 461 all-purpose yards, the fifth-most in a single game in college football history, in the process, breaking Barry Sanders’ 27-year-old record. Yet McCaffrey gained traction too late in the season to catch the most prominent player at the most prominent college football school of the past decade.