And Now We Have Our Three Heisman Finalists

The junior was the Crimson Tide’s workhorse, toting the ball a whopping 339 times for 1,986 yards and 23 touchdowns this season.

“It’s a re-match from last year’s bowl game where Clemson absolutely crushed Oklahoma“. To me that seems like both players are more of system RBs than anything else. Among those watching was Christian McCaffrey, and when his name was announced, his teammates cheered.

Christian McCaffrey broke the NCAA’s single-season all-purpose yards record, previously held by Barry Sanders, with 3,496 yards (including 1,847 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 319 carries).

Even though Wilbon said McCaffrey was the best, he speculated McCaffrey, who is a white running back, would receive more hype and attention if he were not a white running back. He rushed for 207 yards, had 105 yards receiving and tallied 120 on kickoff returns and 29 on punt returns. Along the way, the dual-threat quarterback made life a nightmare for opposing defenses.

Watson, who guided the Red Elephants to the Class AAAAA state title in 2012, has thrown for 3,512 yards and 30 touchdowns through the air, while rushing for 977 yards and another 11 scores for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

More than anything, Watson has what Henry and McCaffrey don’t have enough of: unquestioned leadership, especially under pressure. He also led the country in yards from scrimmage, besting Henry for the top spot. He has led the Clemson offense to produce over 500 yards of offense in nine straight contests dating back to the Tigers’ game against Georgia Tech on October 10 and compiled four 100-yard rushing games over the last five weeks. And in the biggest games on the schedule, like LSU and Florida in Saturday’s SEC championship game, he always delivered.

If we’re taking the player with simply the best numbers, McCaffrey’s the guy.

The Skinny: Stanford head coach David Shaw is admittedly biased, but he has a strong stance about his running back, Christian McCaffrey. I think he has a great chance of leading his team as far as they want to go.

He also saved his best for last, accumulating 461 all-purpose yards in Stanford’s 41-22 win over USC for the Pac-12 title.

McCaffrey is a different type of running back, though, and is making a strong push down the stretch. In recent years, the Cardinal had three more second-place finishers: Toby Gerhart (who lost to Alabama’s Mark Ingram) in 2009, Andrew Luck (to Auburn’s Cam Newton) in 2010 and Luck again (to Baylor’s Robert Griffin III) in 2011. He’s the catalyst quarterback of the nation’s only unbeaten (13-0) team, which will earn the No. 1 seed for the upcoming playoffs.