LSU RB Leonard Fournette is a shoo-in for the Heisman Trophy at this point, right?

In the immortal words of College GameDay personality Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend!”

Over the final month of the season, TCU QB Trevone Boykin and Ohio State RB Ezekiel Elliott will make their cases to be the choice instead of Fournette. But there is a more immediate threat to Fournette’s Heisman campaign lurking in the days ahead.

NCAA Football: Louisiana State at Texas A&MWhile Fournette has been the center of attention in the SEC for the last couple of months, Alabama RB Derrick Henry quietly has  been putting together a top-notch season of his own.

And Henry is waiting patiently to share the national stage with Fournette when No. 4-ranked LSU visits No. 7 Alabama, with the inside track to the SEC Championship Game – and potentially the College Football Playoff – at stake on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.

So, too, could the Heisman Trophy be at stake.

At first glance, it seems as though Fournette should remain the superior candidate no matter the outcome of the SEC West showdown.

After all, Fournette leads the nation with 1,352 yards rushing in spite of missing out on his season opener against McNeese State due to inclement weather. His 15 rushing touchdowns are second only to Houston QB Greg Ward Jr., who has 16.

And Fournette’s 7.7 yards per rushing attempt is nearly two full yards better than Henry’s 5.8.

HenryBut would your opinion change if Henry turned in a performance similar to the 236 yards he gained against Texas A&M in Week 7?

What if the Alabama defense, which ranks third in the country against the run by allowing just 78.3 yards per game, holds Fournette below 100 yards for the first time this season?

If those possibilities happen in tandem, the numbers gap between Fournette and Henry closes very quickly, because while Henry’s numbers are not the very best, he’s still among the nation’s elite.

After sharing the Crimson Tide’s workload at running back with T.J. Yeldon during his first two seasons on campus, Henry has upped his numbers as the lead back for the defending SEC champions.

His 1,044 yards rushing rank ninth in the country, and his 14 rushing touchdowns trail only Ward and Fournette as they enter play in Week 10.

But perhaps more important to Henry’s campaign than winning the war of the stat sheet is being on the winning side of this massively important SEC contest.

The Heisman committee loves a winner, and will sometimes overlook some statistical shortcomings to hand the trophy to the best player on what they deem to be the best team.

An argument can be made that those numbers are plenty good enough to warrant a change of heart from some Heisman voters if Henry outplays Fournette, and the Crimson Tide ends up being deemed one of the nation’s best teams by the time things are all said and done.

There may be no better recent example of this possibility than Mark Ingram, a fellow Alabama running back. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2009 as a member of what would eventually become a national championship winning Crimson Tide team.

While that team finished 14-0 and was clearly the best in the country, Ingram’s numbers paled in comparison to Stanford RB Toby Gerhart, who ended up rushing for 1,871 yards and 27 touchdowns that season.

Ingram won the trophy with a season that produced 1,658 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns by the time the dust had settled.

So if Alabama wins Saturday night and Henry outrushes Fournette and the Crimson Tide goes on to win the SEC, then look out, Fournette fans.