Guerry Clegg: Alabama's Derrick Henry deserves the Heisman

AUBURN, Ala. --

Contrary to what one might have thought, Derrick Henry didn't have to be dragged off the Jordan-Hare Stadium field and rushed in for an IV.

Indeed, Henry looked just as fresh on his 46th and final carry of the game -- good for a 25-yard touchdown to punctuate Alabama's 29-13 win over Auburn -- as he did in the first quarter. After a lengthy TV interview on the field, Henry jogged toward the Alabama locker room with a spring in his step and a huge smile on his face.

A reporter asked Alabama coach Nick Saban if he could recall ever running the same back 14 consecutive plays, as he did Henry in the fourth quarter on Alabama's last two possessions. Saban just shrugged, almost as if

unaware of the number.

"I can't answer that, but probably not," Saban said.

"It's hard to take a guy out when we don't have another experienced back like Kenyan Drake, who I hope we're getting back sometime soon. But we're not going to push him back," Saban said. "We have two freshmen (Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough) who have not played a lot. You need to play them more. But it's tough to put them in in that situation. Derrick was not asking to come out. He was asking to stay in. And I asked him every time he came over to the sideline, 'Are you OK? We'll put somebody else in there.' He said, 'Coach, I'm good.' "

Saban also was unaware -- but certainly not surprised -- that Henry set a school record with 46 carries. With 271 yards, Henry became the first Bama back to surpass 250 since Shaun Alexander in 1996.

What Saban was fully mindful of, though, was he had little choice but to ride his workhorse running back as long as he could hold up. So there wasn't a whole lot of discussion between Saban and Lane Kiffin, his offensive coordinator, about what Alabama was going to do in the fourth quarter. A crazy, 77-yard touchdown pass from Jeremy Johnson to Jason Smith -- which Smith tipped twice to himself before catching it -- had made Bama's lead uncomfortably close at 19-13.

Saban and Kiffin knew they had to keep the ball out of Auburn's hands. They ran Henry on 10 of 15 plays, setting up Adam Griffith's fifth field goal of the game to make it 22-13.

"Lane knew we needed to run the ball," Saban said.

When they got the ball back again with 7:49 left to play in the fourth quarter, they weren't about to trust anyone else with the football. He had 10 consecutive carries on one drive. Even though The Tide finally stalled at Auburn's 31, they left the Tigers with only 2:46 remaining on the clock and needing to score twice.

Let's put it in perspective. Alabama ran 76 offensive plays -- 26 passes, three scrambles by quarterback Jake Coker, one carry on the second quarter by Harris. The rest was Henry.

"You know, we'd really like for somebody else to run the ball," Saban said. "But it got tough to take him out. He seems like he gets stronger as the game goes along. Hard to take him out at the end. He's a go-to guy. He didn't want to come out. He said he was good. He certainly finished the game like we needed him to. My hat's off to him as a competitor. He really inspires everyone on our team the way he competes and the way he plays, the toughness that he runs with. What a spirit. What a spirit."

Saban and Alabama are loathe to talk about individual awards. But with the Heisman ballots now out, it's appropriate to start assessing the race. As the unofficial list gets shorter, Henry's case is getting stronger by the week. If I had a vote, there's no question he would be at the top of my list.

The numbers are impressive. This was his fourth 200-yard game of the season. Only two other SEC players have ever done that -- Georgia's Herschel Walker and Auburn's Bo Jackson. He now has 1,797 yards for the season, another Alabama record.

But it's more than just the numbers. Alabama is the best team in college football, and without Henry the Tide probably wouldn't be in the playoff mix. Henry doesn't say much. That was compounded by the fact that he was the last player made available to the media and only a handful of reporters could get close enough to hear him before he was rushed off to the team bus. He's certainly not going to state his own case.

"We had to stay locked in and stay focused," Henry said. "We got that loss (to Ole Miss) and we didn't want to lose anymore, so everyone just kept working hard in practice."

No one dared ask Saban about the Heisman. But he was asked about the importance of Henry to this team.

"We've had some really good running backs here, first- and second-round draft picks, guys that are playing well in the NFL," Saban said. "But what Derrick did for this team, because this team needs for him to do what he does, I would say he's made as significant an impact on this team as any player we've ever had."

But Tide center Ryan Kelly was emphatic about his teammate's Heisman worthiness.

"Absolutely," said Kelly. "I can't think of a guy who's more deserving of that award."

Neither can I.

-- Guerry Clegg is an independent correspondent. You can write to him at sports@ledger-enquirer.com

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Guerry Clegg: Alabama's Derrick Henry deserves the Heisman ."