It's sad to be so biased in terms of the home town guy that you use variables that aren't relevant. Alabama allowed 2.38 yards per rush, #1 in the country. Stanford allowed 4.60. So naturally Derrick Henry has a severe advantage against Leonard Fournette or anyone else in a head to head matchup. If Stanford had faced Alabama then Henry has huge favoritism based on the caliber of defense, not based on how he compares to Henry.
All of your paragraphs were essentially empty.
Unfortunately the voters were similarly gullible and swayed, along with the overwhelming regional bias. Reverse the home states of those two players and not only does McCaffrey win the Heisman he does so in far more lopsided fashion than Henry did.
One week after facing Alabama, LSU gave up 299 yards on the ground to Arkansas in 40 carries. That was a home game. A week later they surrendered nearly 5 yards per rush to Mississippi. That's how stalwart their rush defense was late in the season. It's the third consecutive season they have had weak rush defense, slightly on either side of 4 yards per carry, which is not going to cut it in the SEC and a major reason why Les Miles was in trouble.
Both are great players. Not similar in style. The Alabama fan doesn't like it that some analysts have taken to knock Derrick Henry, calling him overrated. Understandable. You lose a ton in translation when you try to diminish Christian McCaffrey based on what games he scored touchdowns in, and similar babble. It read like some of the desperate summaries of Russell Wilson around here.
I found it particularly amusing that McCaffrey's skill as a kickoff returner is somehow propped as negative. I just watched the tape of the Big Game against Cal, in which McCaffrey busted open a tight game with a long touchdown return just before halftime. Maybe he shouldn't have done that.
Of course, Alabama fans can be somewhat forgiven for not appreciating kickoff returns as an actual skill. That team is 109th in the nation in kickoff return average this season, averaging a laughable sub-19 yards per return, a full 10 yards below McCaffrey's average.
Well, I didn’t trash Christian McCaffrey. In fact, I specifically said that he’s a fine player, and has a shot to win the Heisman Trophy next year. But he certainly didn’t deserve to win it this year. Secondly, he’ll have to do a lot more if he wants to win it next year. However, I had a feeling you’d be making your way into this thread soon. I’m just a little surprised it took this long. You’re usually one of the first to pipe up and complain anytime Alabama wins anything, or one of their players win anything. Awsi, you’re as biased as they come, sir.
Now, what I find most interesting regarding your rambling about Alabama fans, biases, and everything else….is that you never once mentioned that Christian McCaffrey should’ve won the Heisman Trophy. Nor did you even make a case for it. Neither has anyone else. That’s because you know there isn’t one to be made. At least attempt to make a case for him, so I can tear it to shreds using the facts.
I can make a case for why Deshaun Watson deserved the Heisman Trophy, and certainly deserved to finish second. I can’t make a case for Christian McCaffrey. There’s not one. I can make a case for why Dalvin Cook deserved to be there in New York over McCaffrey.
You see, Derrick Henry is the reason why Alabama is where they are, and why they’re in the playoff. They wouldn’t be there without what he’s done. Just like Clemson wouldn’t be where they are without Deshaun Watson. If anyone would like to make that same argument for McCaffrey and Stanford, they’re actually making a case for why Henry and Watson should’ve finished 1 and 2 in the Heisman voting.
Stanford even uses McCaffrey on punt returns. He’s a terrible punt returner. He only scored 8 rushing touchdowns because he’s not even the best goal line running back on his own team. He gets pulled down close to the endzone in favor of Remound Wright. Because the goal is to punch it in.
The voters saw the All-Purpose yards for McCafrrey much the way I did. They view them as empty because a lot of the kickoff yardage is exactly that. He averages around 28.9 yards per kickoff return. Hell, you can take a knee in the endzone and get 25 yards. Furthermore, there’s no contact on kickoffs for the first 15 or 20 yards. Using your logic, all Alabama had to do was put Henry back there returning kicks, let him accumulate a bunch of empty kick return yardage, and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
The statistics I used were anything but empty. They’re exactly the criteria that players already with a Heisman Trophy in their possession use to determine who gets their vote. Including sports writers with a vote. You can’t go half the season without scoring a TD and deserve a Heisman Trophy. You already know that. The reality is, Derrick Henry won every region in a landslide except for the Far West region. It wasn’t because of being gullible, or being swayed, or bias. To the contrary. It illustrates that the rest of the country wasn’t gullible enough to buy into the late hype and bias created for McCaffrey after he had a good game against USC.
Derrick Henry was the front runner for the Heisman Trophy ever since he bested the former front runner, Leonard Fournette, head-to-head. The votes had already been cast the week before the Conference Championship games.
Let me know when you see a Heisman Trophy winner on a 2 loss team, that got shutout in half the games he played that season, and did absolutely nothing against the two best teams on their schedule.
It’s not Henry’s fault that Alabama has the best run defense in the country, and shut down Fournette. If Fournette deserved the Heisman, then he wouldn’t have been held to 31 yards against Bama in the first place. LSU faultered after the Bama game because they were beat up after they played Alabama. It took a toll on ‘em. Just like Georgia began to faulter after they played Alabama. They were physically whipped, and it takes a while to recover. Same for Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss after they played Alabama. Trust me, the Crimson Tide just feels different after you play them. You’re a little more beat up and a little more physically spent after you play Alabama.
You've got players out there like Tennessee linebacker Darrin Kirkland making a point to tweet about how different it is playing against Alabama.....
User Actions
Follow
Wes Rucker@wesrucker247
#Vols All-SEC Fr middle LB Darrin Kirkland: I only felt like a freshman when we played Bama and Arkansas. Those were some big, strong dudes.
Derrick Henry has certain weaknesses as a prospect. He’s not perfect, just like all the rest of ‘em that have ever played. I know exactly what those weaknesses are too. However, nobody in here has been able to accurately point them out. Because they don’t know what they are. They usually don’t.
Lastly, it’s completely irrelevant whether or not people think Henry is overrated. It doesn’t affect anything. He’s got the hardware, and he got it because he was the most deserving candidate. He’ll have it for the rest of his life. I guess it’s people like you that are going to have to learn to live with that. This entire thread is a little absurd.
FH can't stop putting the cart before the horse.