Mile High Sports

Christian McCaffrey should win the Heisman Trophy

Dec 5, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal running back Christian McCaffrey (5) runs for a first down against the Southern California Trojans in the second quarter in the Pac-12 Conference football championship game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Of course I’m biased.

Christian McCaffrey is one of our own, and you’re damn right I’d like to see him win the Heisman Trophy. I’ve got nothing against Alabama’s Derrick Henry or Clemson’s DeShaun Watson – both fine players – but I want our guy to win. And he should.

Yesterday it became official; McCaffrey was named a Heisman Trophy Finalist. On Saturday, he’ll be in the Big Apple, hopeful of winning the only individual honor in college sports that still matters.

Interestingly, and not that long ago, it wasn’t a 100 percent certainty that McCaffrey, the nation’s leader in all-purpose yards (both this season and in the history of college football for a single season), would even get the invite to the New York City’s Downtown Athletic Club. As recently as last week, and as was pointed out in Michael Jaycox’s plea for McCaffrey, sportsinsights.com only gave the local product the eighth best odds to win.

Why not?

Even if I put my local biased aside, McCaffrey seems to be everything a college football player should be – everything.

In a day and age where too many kids feel pressure to decide if they’re going to be a football player or a basketball player or a hockey player by the age 10 – and then must choose between passing camp, running camp or catching camp by the age of 12 – McCaffrey embodies the idea that an athlete still can, and should be, versatile and well-rounded. He is, after all, a great athlete.

Prior to his alma mater’s state football championship game this past Saturday – just hours before McCaffrey slapped 461 all-purpose yards on Southern Cal – Rod Sherman, the coach of Valor Christian High School, spoke about the importance of being a multisport athlete, about being well-rounded and experiencing as many things as one possibly could in high school (by the way, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Mark Kiszla’s fantastic article on specialization in high school sports). When he was in high school, I saw McCaffrey compete for state titles in football, basketball and track.

Now at Stanford, he plays football, but he truly does it all. Saturday’s game against the Trojans provided a snapshot of exactly what McCaffrey is all about: 461 all-purpose yards –207 rushing, 105 receiving, 120 kick return and 29 punt return – and three touchdowns. And he scored those in three different ways – rushing, receiving and passing (on an 11-yard, second-quarter toss to quarterback Kevin Hogan). That, in a nutshell, is what’s still fun about college football – let a star be a star, and get him the ball any and every way possible.

Let the NFL and its combine decide if someone should be a first-down back, a third-down back, a between-the-tackles back or a pass-catching-scat back. Would it really surprise anyone if McCaffrey could also be a defensive back? He was a darn good one in high school.

And while it shouldn’t count toward the Heisman, it should be noted that McCaffrey is also an Academic All-American, too. At Stanford, no less. Shouldn’t your Heisman winner be someone who can do it all? Someone who can help his team on as many downs as possible?

Henry is a great player, boasting the most rushing yards in the country with 1,986. McCaffrey isn’t far behind with 1,847 rushing yards of his own. But then, you know, he did all that other stuff, too.

There are arguments against McCaffrey: He doesn’t play in the SEC (who cares; the Pac-12 has great teams and great athletes, too; that’s such a “2012 stance”); he’s not as big as Henry, nor does he lead the nation’s No. 1 ranked team like Watson. I’ve even heard people say he won’t win because he’s white. (People, people, people… it’s 2015. Are we really still saying things like that out loud? Besides, being a white running back can’t be a bad thing…just ask Joe Dudek.)

But none of those arguments work for me. Christian McCaffrey is our guy, and he should win the Heisman.

Why? Because he’s the best, and it’s not even close.

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