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There will be a number of very strong candidates for the Heisman Trophy in 2016. Stanford’s all-everything Christian McCaffrey, Clemson QB Deshaun Watson, Florida State RB Dalvin Cook, Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield, and Ohio State QB J.T. Barrett – all stars in 2015 – are coming back next year.
We just saw Watson shred the best defense in the country Monday night. He threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for another 73 yards against an Alabama that has four potential first-round picks on its defense.
What Watson did last Monday was nothing short of amazing. He and McCaffrey – who broke all sorts of all-purpose yards in 2015 and had a huge Rose Bowl against Iowa – will be the frontrunners among this amazing group to win the 2016 Heisman Trophy.
But LSU sophomore RB Leonard Fournette could tell Watson and McCaffrey a thing or two about being the Heisman frontrunner. Practically a Heisman lock himself through the first half of the 2015, Fournette’s unimpeded journey to New York City hit a roadblock and the Tigers’ all-time single-season rushing record-holder tumbled all the way to sixth in the final balloting. He didn’t even get an invite to New York.
That’s quite a fall from grace, but don’t discount the consensus All-American for 2016. His rushing average per game of 162.7 yards was tops in the nation. And it wasn’t even close. Alabama RB Derrick Henry, the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner, was a distant second with a 147.9 average.
Where Fournette fell off the rails was the late-season three-game stretch in which the Tigers were throttled by Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss on consecutive weeks. Only once during that stretch did Fournette manage a 100-yard game. He finished with 108 vs. Ole Miss.
But by then the damage was done and Fournette had gone from Heisman lock to Heisman also-ran. Fournette’s dream season turned nightmarish and the Tigers settled for Houston as their mid-level bowl destination.
But with a new year comes fresh optimism and Fournette returns to the Tigers a year older and a year wiser. He’ll run behind an offensive line that will be talented but relatively inexperienced in comparison to the 2015 group.
Les Miles has promised to open up the offense somewhat. What that means in relation to Fournette, if anything, remains to be seen. But the formula that Miles has grown accustomed to of pounding the football, and with what many consider the best running back in the country, worked very effectively in nine of 12 games in the 2015 season.
So it will be interesting to see what sort of tricks the Mad Hatter has up his sleeve for 2016.
We saw a few wrinkles in the bowl game vs. Texas Tech with jet sweeps and reverses, using Fournette largely as a decoy in those particular situations. And still Fournette carried 29 times and rolled up 212 yards and four touchdowns. Granted it was against one of the worst rushing defenses in the country, but still it was an impressive outing. It was Fournette’s fourth 200-yard game this season.
And it was nice to see his fifth touchdown, as well, a screen pass that he took to the house for a 44-yard score. That was something different.
So don’t overlook Fournette when taking an early glance at the 2016 Heisman hopefuls.
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
