Notes from the 81st Heisman ceremony

Notes from the 2015 Heisman Trophy ceremony:

The Vote

Percentage of ballots for the top 3:
Derrick Henry – 86.01%
Christian McCaffrey – 76.75%
Deshaun Watson – 67.71%

By comparison, the 2014 winner, Marcus Mariota, was named on 95.16% of the ballots. Melvin Gordon, who finished second last year, was on 80.09% of ballots.

The three finalists in 2015 received 81% of the total points available. In 2014, the three finalists received 86% of the available points.

Percentage of ballots received by week
Week 1: 1%
Week 2:* 15%
Week 3: 84%

* – represents all ballots received before games started on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015.

Number of ballots received and tabulated
898 out of 929 (97%)

Number of players receiving votes, by place:
First — 13 players
Second — 15
Third — 32
Total players receiving votes — 35
(44 players received votes in 2014)

Also of note:

• Henry finished first in five of the six regions while McCaffrey won the Far West
• The 2015 balloting is the closest since 2011, when Robert Griffin III beat Andrew Luck by 280 points.
• Running backs finished first and second for only the second time since 1994 (Rashaan Salaam and Kijana Carter in ’94; Ingram and Gerhart in ’99)
• McCaffrey’s 1,539 points are the 9th most for a Heisman runner up in history
• Watson’s 1,165 points are the 3rd most for a third-place finisher in history.

Notes on Derrick Henry

Derrick Henry is the second player from Alabama to win the Heisman and the second Crimson Tide running back to do so, joining Mark Ingram.

He is the second player from Alabama to win the Heisman in the last seven years.

Alabama joins Yale, Army, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Navy, USC, Miami, Oklahoma and Michigan as schools that have produced two Heisman winners within a seven year span.

He’s the second Heisman winner under Alabama head coach Nick Saban. He would join Frank Leahy (Notre Dame), Woody Hayes (Ohio State), Colonel Earl Blaik (Army), Pete Carroll (USC), Ducky Pond (Yale), Wayne Hardin (Navy), John McKay (USC), John Robinson (USC) and Tommy Prothro (Oregon State, UCLA) as coaches who have tutored at least two Heisman winners.

He’s the first running back to win since 2009 and just the second running back to do so since Ron Dayne won in 1999 (Ingram being the other).

He’s the 43rd running back to win the Heisman.

His 1,986 rushing yards are the most by a Heisman-winning back since Ricky Williams won with 2,124 yards in 1998.

His 23 touchdowns scored are the most by a Heisman-winning back since Williams scored 27 in 1998.

His 339 carries are the most by a Heisman-winning back since Williams had 361 in 1998.

He is the 13th player from an SEC school (as the conference is currently configured) to win the Heisman.

He is the fifth SEC player in the last nine years to win the Heisman.

He joins Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton and Charles Woodson as Heisman winners who wore the No. 2 jersey.

He is third player born in Florida to win the Heisman.

He is the 19th junior to win the Heisman, the second in a row and the fourth in six years.

He is the second-straight Heisman winner to play for a team that made the college football playoff.

He is the fourth-heaviest-listed Heisman winner overall at 242 pounds and the second-heaviest-listed running back behind Ron Dayne (252 lbs).

He is tied with Eddie George as the tallest-listed running back to win the Heisman (6-3).

Notes on Christian McCaffrey

This is the fifth time a Stanford player has finished as a Heisman runner up and the fourth time since 2009. McCaffrey joins John Elway (1982), Toby Gerhart (2009) and Andrew Luck (2010 and 2011) as runners up.

Stanford is now tied with Oklahoma for most Heisman runner up finishes with 5.

It the 11th time a Pac-12 player (as the conference is currently configured) has finished as Heisman runner up.

Notes on Deshaun Watson

Watson is the first Clemson player to log a top 3 Heisman finish.