Alabama’s Henry wins Heisman

The young man who just won an award that will be mentioned in the first paragraph of his obituary is a small-town guy from Yulee, Fla., pretty much where Florida, Georgia and the Atlantic Ocean meet.

Henry became the University of Alabama’s second Heisman Trophy victor, joining fellow running back Mark Ingram’s 2009 win. Henry tallied 1,832 points to beat out Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. He is just the fourth player in college football history win all four awards in the same season. He leads the nation in rushing yards and touchdowns and is second in yards per game with 152.8. Few did. Three of his four lowest rushing totals came against teams where the Tide were far superior and Henry saw less action – Middle Tennessee, Louisiana Monroe and Charleston Southern – so he did his major damage against better competition. Henry is nearly certain to turn pro, which means he’ll be preparing to play in some Sunday or Monday night National Football League game this time next year.

Image: Derrick Henry kisses the Heisman Trophy.

The Crimson Tide’s super-sized tailback is just the third running back to take the Heisman in the past 16 years. Rounding out the top 10 were Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield (34 first-place votes), Navy QB Keenan Reynolds (20 first-place votes), LSU RB Leonard Fournette (10 first-place votes), FSU RB Dalvin Cook (7 first-place votes), Ohio State RB Ezekiel Elliott (5 first-place votes), Michigan State QB Connor Cook (2 first-place votes) and TCU QB Trevone Boykin (1 first-place vote).

Those numbers included big games against Auburn in the “Iron Bowl” and Florida in last week’s SEC’s championship game. He also won the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award. Earlier in the day Saturday, Cardinal head coach David Shaw managed to sound both philosophical and disbelieving about the possibility that his player would not win the Heisman. “So “deserving” is a hard word”, Shaw said. ‘Can you pass away?’ I asked. All three are deserving of the top spot, and I don’t think you’d be wrong to have any of them at No. 1. You can put it up against any year anybody has had at any position. “That’s not even disputable”.

Heisman Trophy finalists, from left, Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, right, shake hands as Alabama’s Derrick Henry looks on during the Heisman Trophy presentation show, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, in NY. The comparison that kept coming up from football people for the 19-year-old Stanford star was Reggie Bush – perhaps the most explosive college back of the past decade. Breaking Barry Sanders’ all-purpose yardage total of 3,250 and pushing it up to nearly 3,500 yards is jaw-dropping stuff.