Alabama RB Derrick Henry takes home Heisman Trophy

NEW YORK -- As the season went on, Derrick Henry became a workhorse running back for Alabama.

Now he is a Heisman Trophy winner.

Henry became the second Alabama player to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, beating out Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey and Clemson sophomore quarterback DeShaun Watson.

The soft-spoken junior from the small town of Yulee, Fla., received 378 first-place votes and totaled 1,832 points from 929 electors. McCaffrey, who shattered Barry Sanders' 27-year record for all-purpose yards, finished with 290 votes for 1,539 points while Watson had 148 first-place votes for 1,165 first-place votes after leading Clemson to an undefeated season and the ACC title.

"It's the Heisman," Henry said about three and a half hours before the announcement. "It's a dream come true. All those guys in the Heisman brotherhood, that fraternity are my heroes I grew up watching."

Henry was the nation's top rusher, finishing with 1,986 rushing yards, nearly 100 more than Herschel Walker's 1981 SEC record. A significant amount of those yards came down the stretch as Henry gained 732 yards and scored six touchdowns in the Crimson Tide's final four games after Kenyan Drake broke his arm.

"God bless and roll tide," said Henry in his brief acceptance speech after winning the closest vote since Mark Ingram Jr. edged Stanford's Toby Gerhart in 2009.

Those numbers included big games against Auburn in the "Iron Bowl" and Florida in last week's SEC's championship game. During the Crimson Tide's last six contests against FCS opposition, Henry averaged 209 yards while breaking Walker's mark in the third quarter last week.

"It was a dream come true," Henry said at his press conference at midtown-Manhattan's Marriott Marquis Hotel. "I was hoping to meet (Walker) tonight but he's not here. Hopefully I can meet him sometime down the road. Just what that name means, being in the fraternity with these guys it's an honor."

Against Auburn and Florida, he carried the ball an astounding 90 times for 460 yards and finished the season by tying the SEC record with 23 rushing touchdowns.

"One of the things that pleases me about Derrick being recognized as being the outstanding player in college football by winning this award is sometimes as a coach you look at what does a particular player do for his team," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. "Derrick probably did as much for our team this year in terms of how he finished the season, the workload that he carried when we got some other guys injured."

Henry's dominance on the ground seemed more convincing than McCaffrey's breaking Barry Sanders' 27-year record in all-purpose yards or Watson's impressive showing of 41 touchdowns. Henry placed first in five of the six regions, only losing the Far West by 51 points to McCaffrey.

"He always wanted to be there and he got better as it went but he did as much for his team as anybody could have done for or ever has done for any of our teams," Saban said. "There are great team efforts but when it really came right down to it, he really stepped up and did a great job for our team."

Henry, whose height of 6 feet 3 and weight of 238 pounds has drawn comparisons to 1996 winner Eddie George, claimed his third trophy in two days. On Thursday, he won the Maxwell Award as college football's best player and the Doak Walker award for being the nation's top running back.

"This is like a dream of mine," Henry said. "I still feel like I'm dreaming now."

Henry's dream come true halted the recent trend of quarterbacks winning the award. Since Ingram Jr. won Alabama's only other Heisman trophy award, quarterbacks have won, including Oregon's Marcus Mariota last year.

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.

After the top three, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield was fourth with 334 points and Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds was fifth with 180.

LSU running back Leonard Fournette got 110 points followed by Florida State running back Dalvin Cook (79) and Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliot (57). Quarterbacks Connor Cook of Michigan State and Trevone Boykin of TCU tied for ninth with 13 points.