Christian McCaffrey named one of the 10 most indispensable players in the country

Grantland's Matt Hinton recently wrote about college football's 10 most indispensable players of the 2015 season. In his piece, which is very much worth your time, Hinton explains why Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey is among the nation's most important players to his team. 

Here is an excerpt from Hinton's piece about McCaffrey:

"This time last year, the most intriguing name in Stanford’s backfield belonged to the son of a former NFL star, and it still does. It’s just that in 2015, the hopes for a breakthrough rest on the shoulders of a different son of a different star: While Barry Sanders Jr. continued to struggle in his third year on campus to live up to the hype that accompanied his famous name, Cardinal fans flipped for McCaffrey, son of former Giants and Broncos receiver Ed McCaffrey. As a true freshman, the younger McCaffrey often seemed to provide the only spark in one of the more disappointingly lo-fi attacks in the nation, touching the ball just 59 times (42 carries, 17 receptions) but making good things happen when he did."

He continued:

"In fact, in light of Stanford’s larger failure to establish the kind of punishing, consistent ground game that fueled back-to-back conference championship runs in 2012-13, it’s not hard to see why the locals were anxious for coaches to set McCaffrey free. On his limited opportunities, he averaged 9.3 yards and delivered 11 plays of 20 yards or longer; he also accounted for 25 first downs, more than starting tailback Remound Wright managed to earn (22) in a substantially larger role. (Where McCaffrey averaged 2.6 touches per first down, Wright averaged 6.5.) I’d probably hold off on mentioning McCaffrey in the same breath with the Heisman Trophy, but assuming he’ll be sitting at 1 or 1a on this year’s depth chart, the Cardinal are already looking considerably more explosive."

(h/t Grantland)