Mandel's Heisman Top 5: Why Henry doesn't need to sweat Mayfield

By Stewart Mandel
Published

Oklahoma locked up the Big 12 title and a likely playoff berth Saturday night. The Sooners don’t need to play next weekend to accomplish either. But not playing the last Saturday will likely preclude Sooners QB Baker Mayfield from winning the Heisman. He’s not going to pass Derrick Henry on a bye week.

Especially considering what Henry did Saturday.

1.  Alabama RB Derrick Henry. With a monstrous 46-carry, 271-yard performance against Auburn, Henry inched closer to locking this up. He’s up to 1,797 yards, including 200-plus in four of his last five SEC games.

2. Florida State RB Dalvin Cook. Even against a stout Florida defense, FSU’s stud sophomore carried 26 times for 183 yards and two TDs. That’s 7.0 yards per carry, not far below his staggering 8.0 clip coming in.

3. Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey. Notre Dame held McCaffrey to 94 yards on 27 carries, but thanks to five kick returns he still notched 228 all-purpose yards. A big Pac-12 title game should seal a top-four finish.

4. Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield. He spent most of Saturday’s Bedlam rout handing the ball to Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine, but his season-long performance as the nation’s top-rated passer merits a trip to New York.

5. Clemson QB Deshaun Watson. The sophomore had another huge day against rival South Carolina, going 20 of 27 for 279 yards and rushing 21 times for 114 yards. He could make a move with a big ACC title game.

Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel and Facebook. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.