NEW YORK — Alabama running back Derrick Henry won the Heisman Trophy Saturday night.
College football’s leading rusher, Henry won the award by a margin of 293 points over Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey.
Henry received 378 first-place votes for a total of 1,832 points. McCaffrey, who led college football in all-purpose yards, finished with 1,539 points while Clemson quarterback had 1,165.
A week after breaking Herschel Walker’s SEC rushing record, Henry joined current New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram Jr. as the only Crimson Tide players to win the award.
Henry also broke a five-year run of quarterbacks winning the award. Since Ingram won the award in 2009, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III, Johnny Manziel, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota had won.
Including the vacated 2005 award won by USC’s Reggie Bush, it also was the third time since 1999 a non-quarterback won the trophy.
Henry led the second-ranked Crimson Tide to a meeting with No. 3 Michigan State in the College Football Playoff Semifinal.
After splitting time with T.J. Yeldon the previous two years in Alabama’s backfield, Henry used his big frame of 6-foot-3 and 242 pounds to become a dominant one-man show. He led the nation with a school-record 339 carries for an SEC-record 1,986 rushing yards and also tied Tim Tebow and Tre Mason’s SEC record with 23 rushing touchdowns.
Additionally, Henry shined late in the season after Kenyan Drake broke his arm. Before Saturday, he had won the Maxwell Award as college football’s best player and the Doak Walker award for being the nation’s top running back.
In the Alabama’s last six games against FCS opposition, Henry averaged 209 yards. In the Crimson Tide’s victories over Florida and Auburn, Henry carried the ball an astounding 90 times for 460 yards, including a school-record 46 times in the Iron Bowl against Auburn.