NFL Offensive Player of the Year. Three-time first-team All-Pro. Three Pro Bowl appearances. It’s an astonishing list of NFL success that tells the story of a player who was recently featured as the cover athlete for the EA Sports Madden series. Yet, Christian McCaffrey’s college career set the scene for his future professional success, remembered as one of the best to do it.
Where Did Christian McCaffrey Go to College?
McCaffrey’s college career began as a four-star recruit and top 100 high school prospect who spurned offers from 21 other teams to join the Stanford Cardinal in 2014. His arrival at the program came on the back of the electric playmaker winning the Gatorade Football Player of the Year award in Colorado in consecutive years and continued the family legacy at Stanford.
Cardinal football was very much in the bloodlines, with father Ed McCaffrey starring for Stanford between 1986 and 1990 before emarking on his own remarkable NFL career. Meanwhile, his mother, Lisa McCaffrey, had played soccer for the university. While both parents were successful in their own right, McCaffrey was about to set a legacy that few will ever repeat.
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McCaffrey’s college career began at a somewhat pedestrian pace relative to the future success he would come to enjoy. Establishing yourself as a true freshman at the runing back position is always difficult, especially in a crowded Stanford backfield, but there were flashes of the versatile brilliance that the world would come to embrace on Saturdays and Sundays.
Flashes like averaging 7.1 yards per carry. Flashes like taking 17 receptions and turning them into 251 receiving yards and two touchdowns, including one on his debut against UC-Davis. Rushing, receiving, returning kicks, returning punts, there were indications everywhere of how McCaffrey could impact a game at any time, from any alignment, in any role.
Yet, the flashes couldn’t prepare the football world for his 2015 breakout campaign. After tallying less than 100 rushing yards in the first two games of the year, McCaffrey thrilled and wowed college football fans and media alike with a dazzling string of performances where he looked unstoppable.
The Stanford running back put together 11 games with over 100 rushing yards, including three (Oregon State, UCLA, and USC) where he ran for over 200 yards. He had over 100 receiving yards in three different games. He even threw two touchdown passes on three pass attempts. McCaffrey even tallied over 1,000 kick return yards and a score with a punt return touchdown too.
McCaffrey’s 2015 college football season was one of the best that there has ever been. It was the stuff of legend, and undoubtedly showcased what his career in the NFL would look like, mainly because he resembled a professional athlete competing against high school kids. That’s how good he was. Rarified air.
Yet, playing for Stanford, McCaffrey’s outstanding college season didn’t receive the national attention it deserved. Playing in the Pac-12, the Cardinal standout was often weaving his magic while people on the East Coast were getting ready to turn their television sets off for the night. Heisman Trophy voters literally slept on one of the greatest seasons in college football history.
McCaffrey’s college career wasn’t without accolades, however. In 2015 alone, he won the Paul Hornung Award for being the most versatile player in the nation. He was named the 2015 AP College Football Player of the Year, earned the Chic Harley Award, and was the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. The Stanford running back was named a Consensus All-American.
McCaffrey also earned first-team All-Pac 12 honors for his 2015 campaign and his follow-up season. While he failed to hit the 2,000-yard mark in 2016, he still tallied 1,913 all-purpose yards and outstripped his 15 touchdowns from his sophomore season by finding the end zone 16 times. Truly phenomenal.
McCaffrey concluded his college career with 7,026 all-purpose yards and 33 total touchdowns. His versatile skill set earned him a first-round NFL Draft selection and ultimately led to multiple accolades. Yet, his college career will always be missing that Heisman Trophy that it so richly deserved.
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