NCAA Football: 25 Heisman Trophy finalists who should have won in hindsight
By John Scimeca
Christian McCaffrey was the epitome of a do-it-all, jack-of-all-trades player who excelled at everything on the football field with Stanford. His young NFL career has taken off as well, as demonstrated by his 1,965 all-purpose yards in 2018, a Carolina Panthers single-season franchise record.
Consider Christian McCaffrey’s impressive lineage: His father, Ed, was a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos for a decade in the 1990s. His older brother, Max, played at Duke at saw time with the San Francisco 49ers as a wide receiver.
His two younger brothers, Dylan and Luke, are currently quarterbacks at Michigan and Nebraska, respectively. He has an uncle who played basketball for Duke and a grandfather (Dave Sime) who won a silver medal at the 1960 Olympics in the 100-meter dash.
It only makes sense that Christian would represent his family’s varied athletic achievements by excelling in several roles on the gridiron.
Not surprisingly, McCaffrey led the NCAA in all-purpose yards as a sophomore in 2015 with the Cardinal. He ended the season breaking the all-purpose yards record in a season with 3,864 yards, breaking a 27-year-old mark held by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders by 600 yards.
McCaffrey was named the AP College Football Player of the Year and finished second in the Heisman voting to Alabama’s Derrick Henry. McCaffrey rushed for only 200 fewer yards than Henry (who rushed for 2,219 yards) and had a better average per carry (6.0 to 5.6 yards).
While McCaffrey had 45 catches for 645 yards and five touchdowns, Henry only had nine catches for 91 yards and no scores for the season as a receiver out of the Alabama backfield.
While Henry won a national championship as a member of the Crimson Tide, the superior team compared to Stanford, there is no question that McCaffrey had a more impressive year. He compiled better stats and played a bigger role for his team (which did finish No. 5 in the final AP Poll after winning the Rose Bowl, ending 2015 with a 12-2 record).