Gainesville High grad Deshaun Watson named a Heisman Trophy finalist

Before the Heisman Trophy Trust announced the finalists for Saturday’s coronation of the nation’s best college football player for an 81st year, I was anticipating a half-dozen players earning an invitation to New York City. However, quarterbacks have won the award the last five years, and no running back has captured it since 2009. Shouldn’t your Heisman victor be someone who can do it all? He gained 186 yards on 44 carries in the Tides’ 29-15 victory over Florida in the SEC title game, a very powerful last impression. “Exactly a year later he will be in NY as a Heisman finalist”. But the Cardinal aren’t headed to the playoff, which is why heading into championship week this writer viewed McCaffrey more as a player that would make the ceremony and less as a guy that could realistically win the award.

The Heisman races from the past three seasons were fairly anticlimactic.

Meanwhile, as great as Henry and McCaffrey were, nobody is going to cry foul if Clemson’s Watson were to hear his name called.

Watson, who on Tuesday evening was announced as one of three finalists for the 2015 Heisman Trophy, will appear on the cover of the December 14 issue of the magazine, which will hit newsstands on Wednesday. The Eagles came into the contest with the country’s No. 1 overall defense, yet Watson passed for a season high 420 yards, including TD passes of 51 yards to Artavis Scott and 21 yards to Zac Brooks. His average yards per game for the season stands at 152.8, but it’s an NCAA-best 180.1 against top 25 foes. He surpassed Barry Sanders’s 3,250 all-purpose yards from 1988, but in more games, so there’s a glowering asterisk, but then again, Barry Sanders. He ranks No. 2 in combined passing/rushing yardage, No. 6 in yards per pass against FBS opponents, and No. 1 in adorable photos taken while acknowledging young fans of the other team during coin flips. However, running the football isn’t McCaffrey’s only contribution to the team. This included 207 rushing yards and a touchdown, 105 receiving yards and a touchdown, and 149 return yards.

Tide coach Nick Saban said Henry arrived on campus with the same work ethic thats carried him to the brink of a Heisman.

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson was the third finalist and he was listed at 22-1 odds to win the award. Henry’s size helped him to handle the pounding that came with carrying the ball more than any Power 5 running back in the nation. The first such edition, on November 16, depicted Watson running the ball during Clemson’s 23-13 win over Florida State to clinch the ACC Atlantic Division. If the Heisman is rooted in “value” for certain voters, there’s not a more valuable player than the Stanford all-purpose back.

More than anything, Watson has what Henry and McCaffrey don’t have enough of: unquestioned leadership, especially under pressure. Watson threw for 3,512 yards (16th) and 30 touchdowns (9th) while also running for 887 yards (71st) and 11 touchdowns (38th).

He recorded at least 100 tackles in each of his four seasons at Temple.