This Saturday at 2:30 p.m., Dylan McCaffrey will look to lead Valor Christian High School to a Colorado state championship. And as the big man on campus, all eyes will be on him, including those of college recruits; ESPN already has him ranked as their No. 1 quarterback in next year’s class.
Three hours later, if the game ends in time, he’ll run home to watch his older brother, Christian, play in a championship of his own, the Pac-12 Championship.
It’ll be then that he’ll watch Christian, who was ranked nearly 200 spots lower than him in ESPN’s Top-300 rankings, make a final case for the Heisman Trophy. Unfortunately, he’s got a long way to go; according to sportsinsights.com, he’s only got the eighth-best chance to walk away with college football’s most important award.
And while, hey, that’s pretty darn good for a sophomore running back out of Colorado, I think it’s pretty low — like really, really, really low.
Here are the stats for Christian and the three other running backs ahead of him in the Heisman race:
PLAYER A: 1,797 yards rushing / 6.1-yard average / 97 yards receiving / 22 total touchdowns
PLAYER B: 1,640 yards rushing / 5.7-yard average / 435 yards receiving / 10 total touchdowns
PLAYER C: 1,672 yards rushing / 6.4-yard average / 176 yards receiving / 19 total touchdowns
PLAYER D: 1,741 yards rushing / 6.4-yard average / 209 yards receiving / 18 total touchdowns
Which one’s Christian McCaffrey? If you guessed B, you’re right. And I’m guessing it was because you saw the difference in total touchdowns — in case you’re wondering, Derrick Henry (A), Ezekiel Elliot (C) and Leonard Fournette (D) were the other running backs.
But let me add something to the equation: return yards. Unlike the other three backs, who have amassed a grand total of 13 return yards in the 2015 season, McCaffrey is currently sitting on a cool 960 yards (4th in the nation) and one touchdown.
Not only does McCaffrey lead the nation in all-purpose yards with 3,035 (253 a game), he leads the nation by over 600 yards. In fact, the next closest of the Heisman contenders is Fournette with 1,950.
McCaffrey isn’t just having a great season, though; he’s have an absolutely historic season.
Last week, in a ho-hum game where he amassed 228 all-purpose yards, McCaffrey passed Reggie Bush’s Pac-12 record for all-purpose yards in a season, and we all remember how highly we thought of Reggie Bush (a Heisman winner), right?
And he’s now just 215 yards away from surpassing Barry Sanders’ NCAA record. Barry Sanders!
And yet, somehow, he’s not going to be in the building when the Heisman trophy gets handed out.
And don’t tell me those other backs have faced tougher competition or that McCaffrey is in an easier situation. According to ESPN Stats and Info, McCaffrey has had more rushes of 10-plus yards against defenses with eight men in the box than any other Power 5 player (including those three other backs); opponents are scheming solely to stop McCaffrey, and it’s not working.
Again, McCaffrey is only the third player in NCAA history to surpass 3,000 all-purpose yards. For comparison, only two others have surpassed 2,000 this season.
But because he doesn’t play for Alabama or Ohio State or LSU, we forget that the most talented player in college football is actually a white running back from Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
So if you aren’t going to get the chance to watch Christian McCaffrey during the presentation of the Heisman Trophy, please make sure you catch him this Saturday when he takes on the USC Trojans for the Pac-12 Championship — after watching Dylan bring home a state championship, of course.
Who knows … maybe we’ll see him in a Broncos uniform before to long? I know his dad would like that.