Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey still a Heisman long shot

LOS ANGELES - The man appeared behind Christian McCaffrey after the Rose Bowl game like an apparition: Stanford shirt, Stanford hat, beaded necklace, big wad of chewing gum, big goofy grin. He had a simple message, delivered over and over again, through cupped hands:

“Heisman! Heisman!”

McCaffrey, the Stanford running back who finished second in last season's Heisman Trophy voting, is focused and grounded. Those attributes, plus speed and shiftiness that make him one of the hardest players in the country to tackle, propelled him to 2,019 rushing yards and 645 receiving yards last season.

His most impressive feat of concentration, though, might have been that interview, when, despite the fan's badgering, he maintained composure. Still, McCaffrey said Friday at Pac-12 Media Days, he noticed.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was hard not to notice him,” McCaffrey said. “He was, like, right here. But I appreciate that guy. That's a true fan right there.”

Some pundits believe McCaffrey receives a raw deal playing on the West Coast, sometimes late at night.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott pointed out that last season, when McCaffrey finished second to Alabama's Derrick Henry, many voters didn't even list McCaffrey on their ballots.

“There is no doubt in my mind that there is a competitive disadvantage to a player from the Pac-12 winning the Heisman, just based on the ZIP codes of where the voters are from,” Scott said.

Scott said it's not impossible. He noted Oregon's Marcus Mariota won the award two years ago.

It doesn't help that McCaffrey can be a dull interview. Friday, for example, he claimed he didn't care about winning the Heisman.

“It really doesn't matter at the end of the day,” McCaffrey said. “If I have the worst season in the world, the best season in the world, whatever. If I'm playing football, I'm happy, and no one can take that away from me.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, few publications list McCaffrey as a front-runner for the Heisman this preseason. Most have picked Clemson's Deshaun Watson or Louisiana State's Leonard Fournette.

Perhaps McCaffrey could help his case by humanizing himself a bit more, or adding some more spice. Friday, then, was encouraging. Asked what most people don't know about him, he unleashed this anecdote:

“I used to have a potbelly pig named Terrance,” he said. “He died of obesity.”

Some work still left to do. But it's a start.