Alabama’s Derrick Henry won the 81st Heisman Trophy Saturday night.
It’s hard to dispute his accomplishments.
The 6-3, 242-pound powerhouse junior running back carried a huge work load for the Tide’s offense this season, breaking the great Herschel Walker’s SEC single season rushing record with 1,986 yards on 339 carries while scoring a conference record-tying 23 touchdowns as second-ranked Alabama (12-1) won the conference championship again and rolled into the national semi-finals.
Other than Alabama, this has not been a vintage year for the SEC defenses or conference quarterbacks, opening the door for a running back to make a huge impact.
King Henry seized the throne by rushing for over 200 yards four different times on national TV the second half of the season.
Henry led the country in carries, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and yards after contact. He was second among Power 5 backs in carries of 25 yards or more. He represented more than 36 percent of the Tide’s total yards and 42 percent of its total touchdowns.
Henry won by a solid margin. He had 1,822 points. Stanford’s sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey finished second with 1,539. Henry won five regions. McCaffrey won by a landslide in the Far West. McCaffrey, who broke Barry Sanders’ single season all purpose yardage record with 3,496 yards, might have had a better chance if he played in a conference located closer to the Midwest and Eastern time zones, where most of the voters reside; and had earlier kickoff times.
The Heisman Trophy has become a Southern skill position award. Since 2007, five of the nine winners– quarterback Tim Tebow of Alabama. running back Mark Ingram of Alabama, quarterback Cam Newton of Auburn, quarterback Johnny Manziel of Texas A & M and now Henry–have come from the SEC. In addition, quarterback Robert Griffin III, who won in 2011, attended Baylor, a Big 12 school in Waco, Tex.; and quarterback Jameis Winston, the 2013 winner, played for Florida State in the ACC.
Henry distinguished himself by rushing for 210 yards against then second-ranked LSU to move to the front of the Heisman race ahead of Tigers’ running back Leonard Fournette. He had 271 yards in 46 carries during the Iron Bowl against Auburn and finished up with 189 yards in 44 carries during a victory over Florida in the SEC title game at Atlanta. Henry went on to win the Doak Walker, Maxwell and Walter Camp awards for Outstanding Running Back and Player of the Year before planting a kiss on the Heisman Trophy after his name was announced in an ESPN national telecast in New York City.
Henry, who grew up in the small north Florida town of Yulee, just outside Jacksonville; choked up during an emotional acceptance speech, thanking his family, coaches and especially his teammates.
“Coming into Alabama from Florida, they all accepted me, they all loved me and all supported me,” he said. “Everybody always asks me about carries, what I thought about it, how I felt, but when you got teammates like that who love you and care for you, it doesn’t matter how you feel or how bad it hurts, you’ve got to make sure you’re making those guys happy by helping them win, getting a victory.”
He also mentioned former Alabama teammate Altee Tenpenny, who was killed in a car crash two months ago.
Henry was born to teenage parents and raised with the strong influence of his grandmother, Gladys Henry, who has been hospitalized for weeks in Florida with heart and respiratory problems. Derrick Henry said his grandmother was with him in spirit as his childhood dream of winning the Heisman came true.
“I love you so much,” he told her in front of the cameras.
Henry came to Alabama after setting a Florida high school record with a 510-yard performance against Jacksonville Jackson and averaged 9.2 yards per carry and 327.8 yards per game as a senior, finishing the season with a state-record 4,261 yards and 55 touchdowns. He finished his high school career with a record setting 12,124 career rushing yards. He also rushed for 153 career touchdowns.
There was a time though when Henry — who came close to going to Georgia– almost gave up on Alabama after enrolling. Henry was a backup on a crowded depth chart as a freshman and thought about transferring, but with the encouragement of his family decided to stay put. As a sophomore he shared carries with T.J. Yeldon and ran for 990 yards and 11 touchdowns, showing signs of big things to come.
He had the power of Alabama’s storied program behind him during a persuasive campaign, most of which was seen on national television Saturday afternoons.
McCaffrey is the third Stanford player in the last seven years to finish second in the balloting. The others were running back Toby Gerhart, who lost to Alabama running back Mark Ingram in 2009 in the closest race in history and quarterback Oliver Luck, who finished second in both 2010 and 2011.
Even though Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota won the award in 2014, it has become increasingly difficult for non-USC candidates from the Pac 12 to win the Heisman balloting because of an unintentionally uneven playing field. There are six voting regions, with four located in the eastern half of the country. The Far West region, which stretches from North Dakota to Hawaii, accounts for approximately 24 percent of the U.S. population but only 16 percent of the Heisman electorate.
Mariota had the advantage of entering last season as a known commodity. He was the pre-season favorite to win the Heisman and followed up with a sensational season, leading the Ducks to the national playoffs.
McCaffrey never surfaced as a serious candidate until late October so he was faced with an uphill battle because most of the country was asleep when McCaffrey did most of his best work.
John Wilner wrote a compelling story on McCaffrey’s candidacy for the San Jose Mercury in which he suggested that one of McCaffrey’s biggest obstacles was a Pac-12 television arrangement that resulted in Stanford playing seven night games this season — games that started at 10 p.m. or later in the Eastern time zone. Fifty five percent of the yardage McCaffrey accumulated came past bedtime for a majority of voters and he likely hurt his candidacy with two average games against Northwestern and Notre Dame, which cost him votes in the Midwest.
And on the final Saturday of the season, when he slashed USC for 461 all-purpose yards in the Pac 12 championship, McCaffrey shared the TV audience with two other night games. Meanwhile, Alabama played in the afternoon. Henry had the stage to himself.
Stanford tried to close the gap by creating a web site for McCaffrey in November and Cardinal coach David Shaw gave an eloquent closing argument on why McCaffrey should win the award. But for the Heisman voters, the West Coast might as well have been a foreign country this season.
