Alabama’s Derrick Henry wins Heisman

According to the Today’s U college football staff, that is. Styles and trends come and go.

The Heisman Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the most outstanding individual player in college football.

This year’s Heisman Trophy probably will open another heated argument.

Alabama running back Derrick Henry, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson have been named the three finalists for this year’s Heisman Trophy.

That means two of the three Heisman candidates are playing for teams that will be vying for the national championship in a few weeks. The running back position has slipped out of vogue at times, but McCaffrey and Henry certainly had big years. Shouldn’t your Heisman victor be someone who can do it all? More accurately, this is the year I’m done voting in the nation’s best running quarterback by default.

The debate has full steam.

“In my mind, he’s the best player”, said Bush, a member of the San Francisco 49ers, who is rehabbing from knee surgery. Those things don’t always match.

I had the chance to see him several times in person this season, and each time I was impressed with his ability to make the clutch throw when needed. McCaffrey was right behind him with 1,847 yards on the ground, but he blew everyone else out of the water when he came to all-purpose yards. Deshaun’s Clemson Tigers face off with the Oklahoma Sooners in the Capital One Orange Bowl at 4 p.m. EST on December 31. while the Alabama Crimson Tide, Derrick’s team, will play the Michigan State Spartans in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at 8 p.m. the same day. And he scored those in three different ways: rushing, receiving and passing (on an 11-yard, second-quarter toss to quarterback Kevin Hogan).

A former National Basketball Association general manager is an unindicted co-conspirator in my Heisman Trophy ballot.

A junior, Henry is widely regarded as the second-best running back who could be available in the 2016 draft, behind Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott. Christian McCaffrey is our guy, and he should win the Heisman.

How do you compare an option-style quarterback with a pro-style passer, for example? It’s the longest active streak in college football and the most by any SEC player. Voters are left to their own interpretation.

Watson said he felt 100 percent ready when fall camp began in August barely eight months after surgery. “He’s a great blocker even – stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet”. He is a fourth player on whom his team, in this case the top-ranked in the land, depended inordinately. The first was Mark Ingram, in 2009; Ingram was also the most recent running back to win the trophy.

NOTABLE: While Henry is the prototypical power runner, McCaffrey is all about elusiveness and versatility. He’s a throwback. He will take direct snaps from center, block like a fullback, scramble like Tim Tebow on a read-option play and line up outside the ends as a receiver. “All they did in high school was turn around and toss me the ball and I ran with it, ‘” Saban said.

Henry, meanwhile, has a built-in advantage.

Much like Bush, a long-time idol of McCaffrey, Stanford’s explosive back is a game-breaker and does it all on a football field. They call it “Pac-12 After Dark”. Without them, each team would have been seriously diminished. “Was he the reason they lost to Northwestern?” Henry carried 90 times – 90! – for 460 yards in Alabama’s final two games, against Auburn and Florida. He grinded down defenses. That’s not to say his numbers are not Heisman worthy.

Smart money is on Derrick Henry with Christian McCaffrey just behind. He would be Stanford’s second Heisman victor, joining Jim Plunkett in 1970. The victor will define what the sport values most in 2015. “That’s it”, Watson said.