Heisman Profiles: Watson, Henry, McCaffrey

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 81st Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy Presentation will be at 7 p.m. Saturday in New York City. It will air live on ESPN.Below are Heisman candidate profiles.
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Deshaun Watson rarely panics, not as a high school star in Georgia watching his mother fight cancer or as Clemson’s quarterback working to come back from knee surgery.
Calm and confident without being flashy, Watson’s style led the Tigers to their first undefeated season since 1981 — and a chance to accomplish much more.
Watson’s mother, Deann, said her son has always been steady and on task, more concerned with solving problems than worrying about them. “That’s never changed with him,” she said.
Watson was the one, Deann said, who brought home the Habitat for Humanity flier that helped the family leave public housing for a home of their own. Deshaun Watson did not collapse with his mother’s diagnosis. Instead, he dived into research to make sure it was not “death cancer” as he called it.
It wasn’t. Deann Watson went through radiation and chemotherapy and is currently free of the disease, her son said.
Deshaun Watson has brought that to the field this season, the best player on the country’s No. 1 team, and a Heisman Trophy finalist.
“That’s just the type of person I am,” the sophomore said. “I never really flinch or panic under pressure. I just know what the situation is and where we need to go.”
Right now, that’s to the top of the college football world.
Watson showed flashes of his talent with 14 touchdown passes and two interceptions in his injury-shortened freshman season. He had surgery to repair a torn ACL last December and entered this season dragging the injury-prone label alongside his Heisman potential.
Watson brushed both aside. His season took flight in rain-soaked Death Valley as he led the Tigers to a 24-22 win over Notre Dame that shot Clemson (13-0) into the playoff conversation. Watson has not slowed down since. He led the Tigers to eight straight wins since then with over 500 yards of offense to finish the regular season. He’s thrown for 3,223 yards and 27 touchdowns. He’s run for 756 yards — he’s gone past 100 yards rushing in three of Clemson’s final four regular-season games —with another nine scores.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Watson gives the Tigers an edge that no one else in college football has — the best player in the country.
“Look at any championship team and most have a great quarterback and a great leader,” Swinney said. “He’s special.”
Watson always felt that if he played solidly and the team was successful, individual honors would follow. Last week, he won the ACC’s player of the year and now makes his first trip to New York, where either he or running backs Derrick Henry of Alabama or Christian McCaffrey will be awarded the Heisman on Saturday night.
Win or lose, count on Watson to bring the same, steady approach when Clemson returns to practice for its national semifinal game against No. 4 Oklahoma on Dec. 31 in Miami.
“It’s a team thing around here,” Watson said. “That’s what we focus on.”
HEISMAN-DEFINING MOMENT: In the regular-season finale, Clemson saw its 18-point lead over South Carolina dwindle to 28-25 in the fourth quarter. It was third-and-7 at the Gamecocks’ 33. After a time out, Watson came through with a 24-yard completion through traffic to set up a first-and-goal. Three plays later, he finished off the drive with his fourth TD of the game.
PRO POSPECTS: Watson is locked into college for one more season as a 6-foot-2, 210 pound sophomore. ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said Watson would be a third-day pick if eligible this season and should see improvement with more time in college.
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Derrick Henry made a quick impression on his Alabama teammates upon arriving on campus as a coveted prospect with everything from his hardcore weight room workouts to those middle-of-the-night pushup sessions.
Big, physical and by all accounts a tireless worker, Henry stood out even in a program that’s been handing off tailbacks to the NFL pretty much annually. Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland learned the hard way in one early practice encounter.
“When you meet him in the hole,” Ragland said now, “you better bring everything you’ve got.”
The 6-foot-3, 242-pound Henry is perhaps the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. New Orleans Saints tailback Mark Ingram is the school’s lone Heisman winner, capturing the trophy in 2009.
Henry’s numbers are better; in fact, better than any other Tide runner. He’s already broken Herschel Walker’s SEC single-season rushing record, reaching 1,986 yards with a big league championship game performance in Saturday’s 29-15 win over Florida. That earned Alabama a No. 2 seed in the playoffs.
Granted, he’s done it in 13 games, two more than Walker. But Henry also matched the SEC record of 23 rushing touchdowns shared with Tim Tebow and Tre Mason during his 189-yard performance against the Gators.
“He just put icing on the cake,” said tight end O.J. Howard, who witnessed those early pushup workouts as Henry’s roommate.
The durable Henry has logged an even heavier workload than usual in the past two games. He’s had 90 carries and 460 yards combined against Auburn and Florida.
He’s mostly deflected Heisman talk, while quickly sharing credit with teammates.
“My main focus is on finishing and helping this team win,” Henry said after the SEC championship game. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to help this team win. Whether it’s me running the ball, catching the ball or pass blocking, I just want this team to win. It’s a team effort.”
Henry, who has scored touchdowns in a nation’s best 18 consecutive games, has averaged 180.9 yards against seven ranked opponents. His long stride makes him hard to catch in the open field besides being a load between the tackles.
Tide coach Nick Saban said Henry arrived on campus with the same work ethic that’s carried him to the brink of a Heisman. After setting the national high school record for career rushing yards, Henry split carries with T.J. Yeldon his first two seasons before taking over in the backfield.
Saban said he hasn’t coached “many players that actually set a better example to affect other people.”
“I don’t know that there’s any player on the team that the team means more to them than it does to Derrick,” Saban said.
HEISMAN-DEFINING MOMENT: Henry made one cut behind the line and sprinted toward the end zone while Auburn defenders seemed to be moving in slow motion. The 25-yard touchdown in the final minute of the Iron Bowl was especially notable because it was Henry’s 46th carry and 14th in a row to punctuate a 271-yard performance.
PRO PROSPECTS: A junior, Henry is widely regarded as the second-best running back who could be available in the 2016 draft behind Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott. That could place him late in the first round or dropping into the second if the projections hold up. Alabama has had four running backs drafted in the first two rounds since 2011, including first-rounders Ingram and Trent Richardson.
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STANFORD, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey celebrated with his teammates when he heard the news he was one three finalists for the Heisman Trophy, and quickly deflected the credit to his offensive line, other teammates and coaches.
Stanford’s do-it-all running back earned his trip to New York by being a tough between-the-tackles force, a dynamic returner, a lightning quick runner and a matchup nightmare as a receiver. He even threw a couple touchdown passes.
About the only thing McCaffrey didn’t do this season was brag.
“It’s still such a surreal moment for me,” he said. “It’s very humbling.”
The kid who grew up with Barry Sanders posters on his wall delivered a season that eclipsed Sanders’ best in college when it comes to all-purpose yards.
McCaffrey set the NCAA record for all-purpose yards with 3,496 this season. Even if it took McCaffrey two extra games to reach the mark, just being mentioned alongside Sanders’ magical 1988 campaign is quite the accomplishment.
“It’s special,” coach David Shaw said. “It’s not a conference record. It’s not just a really good year. This is an historic year. He did something that no one has ever done and has done it better than everyone who has ever won a Heisman. It’s phenomenal.”
McCaffrey finished second in the nation to Alabama’s Derrick Henry with 1,847 yards rushing. But it’s in the all-around game where he truly excels. As a skilled pattern runner with great hands out of the backfield or from the slot, McCaffrey added 41 catches for 540 yards to give him the most yards from scrimmage in the nation with 2,387. He also had the second most kick return yards in the nation with 1,042 and 67 additional yards on punt returns to finish with over 1,000 more all-purpose yards than any other player in the country.
Numbers alone fail to do McCaffrey justice. There was the tackle-breaking 49-yard catch-and-run against California, the 70-yard wildcat run against UCLA and the ankle-breaking cuts at full speed that leave defenders in the dust.
“He’s got one of the best one-step jukes in the world,” Stanford cornerback Ronnie Harris said. “Honestly, I’m always star-gazing at him. I’m on the sidelines listening to coach (Duane) Akina with one eye and with the other eye I’m like, ‘What is this dude Christian doing?’ He’s a spectacular treat.”
McCaffrey’s greatness comes from hard work and good genes. His father, Ed, was a star receiver at Stanford who went on to catch 565 passes and win three Super Bowls in a 13-year NFL career. His mother, Lisa, played soccer at Stanford and is the daughter of Olympic silver medal-winning sprinter David Sime. McCaffrey’s older brother, Max, is a wide receiver at Duke, and his two younger brothers play high school football in Colorado.
While McCaffrey’s teammates saw that talent in him as soon as he arrived as a freshman last summer for his first practices, opponents and those outside the program had to wait.
McCaffrey got just 59 offensive touches as a freshman, and it took time for him to learn Stanford’s playbook and get acclimated to the college game. The coaches told him to add weight in the offseason and learn patience from watching tapes of LeSean McCoy so they could tailor the offense around him.
“Christian has been able to adopt that same running style,” Shaw said. “And you see that flash of lightning and the kid explodes through the hole, it’s just phenomenal. It’s been fun to watch.”
HEISMAN-DEFINING MOMENT: McCaffrey provided his highlight-reel play in the Big Game against California when he caught a screen pass from Kevin Hogan, broke two tackles in the backfield, juked three other defenders and outraced the rest of the defense on a 49-yard score.
PRO POSPECTS: McCaffrey isn’t eligible for the draft until 2017 at the earliest. While he might lack the size to be an every-down back, he should be able to thrive as a slot receiver, returner and change-of-pace back.