Why Alabama's Derrick Henry should win the Heisman Trophy

The case for Alabama running back Derrick Henry to win the Heisman Trophy

The best argument for Derrick Henry is to imagine his absence.

What would Alabama look like without the 38% chunk of its offense this season that Henry accounted for? While it’s true Clemson and Stanford would be seriously hurt without Deshaun Watson and Christian McCaffrey, Henry controls the biggest stake of his team’s fate.

Without Henry, Alabama is a great defense wasted. The Crimson Tide would still shut down opponents, but they’d fail to capitalize and eventually slip up. Look at the Tennessee game as a prime example. With Alabama trailing late in fourth quarter despite holding the Volunteers to around five yards per play, Henry bailed the Tide out with a 14-yard touchdown run, his second score of the day. No other Alabama player reached the end zone that day.

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Or how about the Iron Bowl, when five Henry runs on an eight-play drive set up a field goal to put the Tide up by two scores? Then to protect that lead, Nick Saban turned to Henry 14 straight times, the last of which Henry took 25 yards to the house.

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With the No. 1 defense in yards allowed per play, Alabama was always going to be a very tough team. And with their powerful offensive line, the Crimson Tide were going to create holes. But without Henry to burst through those holes and make the most of them, Alabama’s strategy of building a lead and then grinding the game out on the ground falls apart.

Consider that despite his offensive line, Henry is still gaining 69% of his yards after contact, according to AL.com. That’s 1,235 yards, better than all but 27 running backs’ full rushing totals.

Given the size of Henry’s workload, it’s not surprising that his yards per carry doesn’t rank as high. It’s hard to carry the ball 14 straight times and not expect the defense to catch on. Even with that burden, Henry’s 5.86 still tops McCaffrey’s 5.79. Had Dalvin Cook (7.86) or Leonard Fournette (6.42) been Heisman finalists, they could have pointed to their superior efficiency; with McCaffrey as the only other running back left, Henry’s biggest vulnerability doesn't do much to drag down his candidacy.

What’s left is his record-setting production: 1,986 yards, the most ever by an SEC player. Henry did this despite playing against five of the 25 best units in Football Outsiders' rushing defensive S&P+.

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Alabama's path to the national championship

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Alabama 35, Wisconsin 17: Derrick Henry steamrolled the Badgers for 147 yards on 13 carries with three touchdowns as the Crimson Tide kicked off the season with a win in Arlington, Texas.

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Alabama 37, Middle Tennessee 10: Ronnie Harrison's blocked punt for a safety was just part of the onslaught as the Crimson Tide built a 37–3 lead by the end of the third quarter.

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Ole Miss 43, Alabama 37: For the second straight year, the Rebels took down the Crimson Tide, this time in Tuscaloosa. Ole Miss capitalized on five Alabama turnovers and 341 yards passing from Chad Kelly to build a 43–24 lead before narrowly hanging on for the win.

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Alabama 34, Louisiana Monroe 0: Despite a relatively sluggish offensive performance (just 166 yards passing and 3.9 yards per carry), the Crimson Tide easily put away the Warhawks to rebound from their loss to Ole Miss.

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Alabama 38, Georgia 10: A highly anticipated matchup with the unbeaten Bulldogs turned into a rout. The Crimson Tide sent Georgia starting quarterback Greyson Lambert to the bench, contained vaunted running back Nick Chubb for all but one meaningless late touchdown run and moved the ball efficiently on offense. Even special teams got into the mix with a touchdown for Minkah Fitzpatrick on a blocked punt.

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Alabama 27, Arkansas 14: The Crimson Tide defense stymied the Razorbacks' offense, limiting Arkansas to just 44 yards rushing. After scoring just three points before halftime, Alabama's offense found its footing late, tacking on 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull away.

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Alabama 41, Texas A&M 23: The Crimson Tide handed the Aggies their first loss of the season as Derrick Henry rushed for a then-career-high 236 yards. Alabama also turned three Kyle Allen interceptions into touchdowns, including two by Minkah Fitzpatrick.

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Alabama 19, Tennessee 14: It took a Derrick Henry touchdown run with 2:24 remaining to give the Crimson Tide the lead for good. Two Alabama sacks on the Volunteers' ensuing drive helped seal the win, especially the second, which resulted in a fumble recovery by Ryan Anderson.

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Alabama 30, LSU 16: The Crimson Tide defense did what had previously seemed impossible—stop Leonard Fournette. Alabama held the Tigers' star running back to 31 yards on 19 carries while Derrick Henry rushed for 210 yards and three touchdowns.

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Alabama 31, Mississippi State 6: The Crimson Tide bludgeoned Dak Prescott for nine sacks to help keep the Bulldogs out of the end zone. Derrick Henry rushed for 204 yards and two scores on the ground.

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Alabama 56, Charleston Southern 6: Cyrus Jones returned two punts for touchdowns as the Crimson Tide raced to a 49–0 lead by halftime.

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Alabama 29, Auburn 13. The Crimson Tide kept feeding Derrick Henry the rock, and he kept delivering. Henry rushed 46 times for 271 yards to propel Alabama to victory in the Iron Bowl.

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Alabama 29, Florida 15: The Crimson Tide repeated as SEC champions with a victory over the Gators. Florida's offense got nothing going, including just 15 yards on the ground. Alabama found that giving the ball to Henry was its best option again, as he carried 44 times for 189 yards.

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Alabama 38, Michigan State 0: The Crimson Tide blanked the Spartans in the Cotton Bowl to advance to the national championship game against Clemson. True freshman Calvin Ridley led the offense with eight catches for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

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Alabama 45, Clemson 40: With Clemson's defense focused on stopping Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, Crimson Tide tight end O.J. Howard caught five passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns to lead his team to a five-point win in the national title game.

​McCaffrey, of course, has the versatility argument from his production as a returner than Henry lacks. And while McCaffrey had two more games to break Barry Sanders’s record for all-purpose yards in a season, McCaffrey’s supporters will note that he required fewer touches than Sanders.

However, that’s not as surprising as it appears when examining what kind of touches McCaffrey got. His 387 touches required to break the record included 32 kick returns compared to Sanders’s 21. At 29.8 yards per kick return, McCaffrey got an extra 327.8 yards as a result of those 11 extra returns (a factor neither he nor Sanders could control). Had McCaffrey gotten the same number of returns as Sanders, he’d still be short of Sanders’s record by a little over 80 yards with a yards-per-touch average of about a half a yard less.

That doesn’t mean McCaffrey’s season isn’t impressive. But compare it to Henry’s (he set the SEC record with 46 fewer rushes than previous record-holder Herschel Walker), and there’s a clear favorite. Just like in 2009, expect the Alabama back to top the Stanford one.