Heisman Preview: Christian McCaffrey, RB Stanford

Unless you live on the west coast, you probably haven’t seen much of Christian McCaffrey. The sophomore running back from Stanford exploded onto the college football scene this year and opened the eyes of fans everywhere.

Check out the stat line for Christian McCaffrey’s 2015 season:

2015 Stats: 1,847 rushing yards; 540 receiving yards; 12 total touchdowns

PAC 12 Ranking: 1st in Rushing Yards, 6th in Touchdowns, 1st in Yards from Scrimmage, 1st in Kick Return Yards

NCAA Rankings: 2nd in Rushing Yards, 1st in Yards from Scrimmage, 9th in Kick Return Yards

Broke the NCAA Single Season All-Purpose Yardage Record Set by Barry Sanders

After a bleak start to the season where he rushed for less than 70 yards in his first two games and only reached the endzone once in his first four games, McCaffrey broke out in a big way. He rushed for triple digit yards in 10 of his last 11 games and had more than 200 yards in three of those.

He’s the definition of a power running back. With great vision, he bursts through the line and relentlessly fights for every yards. He’s efficient with his efforts and his downhill running style helps him immensely.

Oh, and did I mention he returns kicks? McCaffrey returned kicks for over 1ooo yards and averaged nearly 30 yards on kick returns.

Check out some of McCaffrey’s highlights as he ran onto the Heisman ballot.

As I said earlier, McCaffrey doesn’t get much hype or recognition coming from a school on the west coast. Most fans are asleep when teams such as Stanford, Oregon, and USC take the field. Regardless, this shouldn’t hamper how the Heisman voters look at his candidacy. When you break a record set by Barry Sanders (who’s son is McCaffrey’s back-up) you deserve the lofty recognition the Heisman trophy brings.

Later this week we will highlight Derrick Henry and DeShaun Watson’s candidacies and give our predictions on who will win the Heisman Trophy on December 14th.