No. 7 Stanford tramples No

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Heisman Trophy hopeful Deshaun Watson threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two scores, and No. 1 Clemson captured the ACC championship by holding off eighth-ranked North Carolina 45-37 on Saturday night.

Sophomore Christian McCaffrey made his closing argument for the Heisman with a school-record 461 all-purpose yards, the most in an FBS game this season and fifth-best all-time.

“What doesn’t he do?”

“I think 99 percent of the matchups he has out the back field on the one-on-one, he’s going to win it”, linebacker Su’a Cravens said. “I hope he wins the Heisman Trophy”.

“We’ll go down to Pasadena and have a great time”, Stanford coach David Shaw said, although he also advocated for an expanded playoff that would include the champions of the nation’s five so-called power conferences.

“He’s the best player in the nation”. “It’s not even a debate”, Shaw said.

The only thing McCaffrey couldn’t pull off was an upset in one of the other conference championship games that could have sent the Cardinal to the playoff.

The prize for the Cardinal is an appearance in the Rose Bowl. “I know he did it in a few less games, but he’s the guy I had a poster on the wall of when I was growing up”.

That something is a USC effort that withstood an early Stanford barrage with two goal-line stands, keeping the score at 13-0 when a blowout was on the brink. Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan delivered the ball to him in stride, and he sprinted to the USC 7-yard-line to complete a 67-yard play.

Hogan scored on the next play to put Stanford ahead 20-16.

At the half, the Cardinal RB has run for 155 yards on 17 carries, including this 50-yard dash in the second quarter for a first down.

“Defensively, we knew we had to get a game-breaking play at some point”, Shaw said.

Stanford took control of the game with a pair of touchdowns in a span of just over 3 minutes late in the third quarter.

The Trojans took their first lead at 16-13 when running back Ronald Jones scored on a 27-yard run with 5:28 left in the third quarter. Stanford’s Solomon Thomas scooped up the loose football and ran it back for 6 points. USC came alive in the second half after being sparked by some big gains on the ground, but the Trojans ultimately couldn’t keep their offense on the field long enough to keep McCaffrey and Co. off of it.

That’s when the McCaffrey Show, spectacular in the first half, picked up where it left off.

A missed extra point that was blocked plus plenty of return yards given up to the Cardinal mean the Trojans didn’t even get special teams right in the biggest game of the year.

The Cardinal dominated the game early but led only 13-0 because of problems converting in the red zone.

After taking over at its 6, USC drove 71 yards to set up Alex Wood’s 40-yard field goal 10 seconds before halftime.

USC opens next season against Alabama and it will be a chance to see if Max Browne or Sam Darnold will be a quarterback who can win big games?

“Everything happened so fast”, McCaffrey said. It doesn’t make sense.

Stanford defeated USC, 41-22, on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium in a result that should surprise absolutely no one. On Monday, Clay Helton was stripped of his “interim” tag and was permanently named head coach- a move that greatly satisfied his Trojan players. The Trojans have a 5-3 record under Helton, who was given a five-year contract this week to remain the head coach…. But while the entire Cardinal team celebrated under the rain of gold confetti, the night belonged to Christian McCaffrey. USC C Khaliel Rodgers (ankle) did not play and fourth-string C Nico Falah started in his place….

Before the game, former Trojans great Ronnie Lott openly addressed the issue, offering his endorsement of Haden, saying, “To me, he’s done a fantastic job where he’s been able to weather some really tough moments”.