Christian McCaffrey Wins 2015 Associated Press Player of the Year Honors
Written by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
Stanford (11-2, 8-1) may not be able to stop Alabama from winning the national championship but sophomore all-purpose back Christian McCaffrey kept Crimson Tide tailback Derrick Henry from sweeping end of season top honor awards by capturing the Associated Press 2015 College Football Player of the Year honors.
McCaffrey had an outstanding season in 2015 setting a NCAA record for all-purpose yards with 3,496 breaking the mark set by running back Barry Sanders in 1988 as a member of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. McCaffrey, in two more games than Sanders played, had 1,847 rushing yards with eight touchdowns, pulled in 41 passes for 540 yards with another four scores, and had 1,042 kick return yards with one touchdown scored. Adding to the tally, he returned 14 punts for 67 yards and completed 2-of-3 passes for 39 yards with both completions going for touchdowns.
Henry was second in the voting notching 16 votes after winning the Heisman Trophy Award followed by Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson (11), Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds (2), and Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield (2). McCaffrey, after finishing second in the Heisman voting, collected 29 of the 60 AP votes.
The AP vote for player of the year typically falls in line with Heisman voting but for the first time since 2009, the writers went a different direction. In 2009, Nebraska Cornhusker defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh won the AP award after running back Mark Ingram took home the Heisman for Alabama. The AP also does not normally side with running backs last choosing a tailback in 2005 when USC’s Reggie Bush was selected.
McCaffrey’s talents will be on display one more time as part of the 2015 season when the No. 6 Cardinal faces the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Photo credit: maguzz.com; No. 5 Christian McCaffrey celebrates a win against USC with teammates (2015).
I predicted McCaffrey would not win the Heisman. And here’s why I thought that would be the case. He came to the conversation late. Henry was among the perceived Heisman candidates in early September. No one was really talking about McCaffrey until October. In part, that’s because McCaffrey got off to a slow start. He was also an unknown. Heisman voters are like everyone else. They develop a perception and then look for evidence to support it. Fournette, the perceived front runner, did not provide enough evidence to sustain the early perception. Henry did. Henry was a deserving winner. So was McCaffrey. But by the time McCaffrey was a serious candidate, many voters had already decided and Henry did nothing disappointing to change their minds.
It was a tough year for the Heisman voters with Henry and McCaffrey both very deserving of the top honors. I really thought Fournette should have been invited to New York. He had a soft game against McNeese State cancelled due to weather. He easily could have had another 100-yard game adding to his season totals putting him even closer to the 2,000 yard rushing mark by the end of the regular season. Plus he did not get the benefit of a Championship Game as Henry and McCaffrey did to further pad the stats and also show off his skill set to voters.
Thanks for reading!
RNG