Christian McCaffrey's Heisman Statement Solidifies Stanford's Pac-12 Dynasty

Every season there is always some college football player who bursts onto the national stage with a couple of fantastic performances to leap in front of everybody to snatch the Heisman Trophy in September or early October.

And every year, almost like clockwork, the presumed front-runner seems to falter after a loss or bad outing and fails to capture the award they were handed just weeks earlier.

A few years ago, West Virginia’s Geno Smith was the guy, then he wasn’t. Last year, Todd Gurley could have won the award, until suspension and injury derailed his season. This year it was LSU running back Leonard Fournette who took home the September Heisman, only to see numerous names pass him down the stretch.

The lesson, as always, is to save your best for last. At a prestigious academic institution like Stanford, you probably don’t have to tell them that.

That was certainly the case Saturday night as Cardinal running back Christian McCaffrey spun, dazzled and dashed his way to a remarkable 461 all-purpose-yard effort to not only seal a trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony, but perhaps win the award as well. Oh, and in doing so during the team’s 41-22 victory over USC, the terrific sophomore also helped deliver yet another inexplicable Pac-12 championship to the Farm.

“I couldn’t do it without my teammates. I couldn’t tell you how much I love those guys, it takes all 11 on the field doing their job correctly to make it all happen,” an ever-gracious McCaffrey said on ESPN after the game. “I’d love to go (to New York), that’d be a huge honor.”

Go ahead and book those tickets. The only question left is if he’ll have some additional luggage on the way back to Palo Alto. It certainly won’t be for a lack of effort against the Trojans.

McCaffrey averaged more than 100 all-purpose yards a quarter—including 155 yards rushing by halftime—against a Trojans squad that had found its stride in recent weeks. Even more impressive, he broke Hall of Famer Barry Sanders’ FBS record for all-purpose yards in the second quarter.

While the former Oklahoma State tailback accomplished the feat in two fewer games, McCaffrey did it in fewer touches. All told, the Stanford star finished 2015 with 3,496 all-purpose yards—a number that does not include a forthcoming trip to the Rose Bowl but is still 1,000 yards more than any other player in FBS.

That’s also a Pac-12 record total that breaks the mark previously held by the dazzling (and infamous) Reggie Bush, who made a surprise appearance in Santa Clara to cheer on the team he has been banned from seeing for a decade by the NCAA. 

Not bad company, to say the least.

And if voters weren’t convinced to pick McCaffrey over Alabama’s Derrick Henry (189 yards rushing on 44 carries earlier in the day), Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson or Oklahoma signal-caller Baker Mayfield, well, perhaps they simply haven’t been doing their job and tuning in late at night to catch the prodigious talent put up numbers that would scarcely be believable in whatever video game you choose to play. 

Against USC, as if the yardage wasn’t enough, McCaffrey also found the end zone on the ground, through the air and using his arm. It was doubly impressive considering the stage he accomplished it on: the league title game with numerous conference all-time greats on hand to celebrate the centennial season of the Pac-12.

Heisman moment? No, the son of another Stanford legend didn’t simply put forth a single moment. Instead, he added to his own legacy Saturday night with a Heisman statement for the ages.

In doing so with teammates like quarterback Kevin Hogan—who also ran in, threw and caught a touchdown—and tackling machine Blake Martinez, the Cardinal ended the season as champions of the league once again to all but cement their team’s status as a Pac-12 dynasty.

While the program hasn’t risen to the level of the USC of yesteryear under Pete Carroll by bringing national titles out West or even reaching the national championship game like Oregon has twice this decade, what has gone on at the Farm may be even more impressive.

2015 marked the third time in four years that Stanford took home the Pac-12 trophy, each time winning at least 11 games. While some will dock them for stumbling once or twice during the season to prevent themselves from reaching the ultimate prize, that is remarkable consistency in this day and age of college football by a non-traditional power that has the strictest admissions standards of any Power Five program. 

While at times he has been (rightly) criticized for his play-calling, late-game management or penchant for playing games too close, it is undeniable that head coach David Shaw should be placed right up there with the Nick Sabans, Urban Meyers and Mark Dantonios of the world. Many questioned if Shaw could maintain what Jim Harbaugh had built at Stanford, especially without Andrew Luck, not realizing Shaw had been there from the beginning to help pave the way.

Now, holding up another Pac-12 Championship Trophy and a half-dozen roses at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday night, Shaw has unquestionably stepped out of Harbaugh’s shadow and into rarefied air as the taskmaster of a West Coast dynasty.

A trip to the Rose Bowl still awaits—likely against either Iowa or Ohio State—and a 12th win would all but lock up another Top Five finish. It will be yet another season of defying expectations for a program that has simply become accustomed to it on its way to adding another heavy trophy to an already impressive collection.

Until taking the field in Pasadena, however, Stanford will be hoping its final statement of the year rang loudest for Heisman Trophy voters from coast to coast. It seems certain McCaffrey and Alabama’s Henry will finish Nos. 1 and 2 in some order, and Cardinal fans will no doubt love to get one back from the Crimson Tide after Mark Ingram beat out Toby Gerhart for the award several years ago.

The Nerds from the Farm are smart, though; they know the numbers better than anybody and certainly take to heart the lessons of years past. The team made a statement against USC, but perhaps more impressively, so too did their budding young superstar running back.

After saving his best for last, Christian McCaffrey may have one more thing to lift this month. 

Bryan Fischer is a national college football columnist at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.