Watson falls short in Heisman race
By: will-vandervort December 12, 2015

NEW YORK — Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson fell to Alabama’s Derrick Henry and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey in the 2015 Heisman Trophy race on Saturday, which was announced at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York.

Henry won five of the six voting regions with McCaffrey winning the far west. Watson only beat McCaffrey in the mid-Atlantic region.

Watson was named in the top 3 of 67.7 percent of all ballots. Henry was 86 percent and MaCaffrey earned 76.8 percent of the vote.

“Congrats to (Henry) he earned it,” Watson said afterwards. “That’s where the voters went, and he was the winner.”

Henry had 378 first place votes and 1,832 points. McCaffrey received 290 first place votes and 1,539 points, while Watson had 148 first place votes and 1,165 points.

Watson said finishing third place did not take away anything he experienced the last two days in New York.

“Not at all. I enjoyed my time,” the Clemson quarterback said. “The Heisman does not define a player. It just defines how good he was that year. Congrats to Derrick Henry and Christian  and myself. We all enjoyed it, and later on we will all hang out and enjoy it even more.”

Watson, who guided the Tigers to a 13-0 record and to the No. 1 spot in all the major polls and College Football Playoff rankings, is the first Clemson player to be named a finalist for College Football’s most prestigious award. His third place finish will also be marked as the highest finish in the voting by a Clemson player.

In 1978, quarterback Steve Fuller finished sixth in the voting, while running back C.J. Spiller did the same in the 2009 race.

Watson, whose Tigers will play No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange on New Year’s Eve, led the ACC this year with 3,512 yards and 30 touchdowns this year. He also led all quarterbacks with 887 yards and 11 touchdowns.

His 11 rushing touchdowns led Clemson. He was also named the ACC Championship Game’s Most Valuable Player as he totaled 420 yards and was responsible for five touchdowns in Clemson’s 45-37 victory over North Carolina. Both of those marks were ACC Championship Game records.

Watson was also named the recipient of the Davey O’Brien Award earlier this week, and was a first-team All-American as well as ACC Player of the Year.