STANFORD, Calif. -- David Shaw is no stranger to seeing his players in the thick of the Heisman Trophy race.

In 2009, Shaw was Stanford's offensive coordinator when Toby Gerhart bruised his way to the closest runner-up finish in the history of the award. Shaw then oversaw Andrew Luck's consecutive second-places finishes, once as a coordinator (2010) and once as the Cardinal's head coach (2011).

Now, after a three-year drought, Stanford is in early position to send another player to New York. Christian McCaffrey is the candidate, but don't expect Shaw to craft any elaborate PowerPoint presentations campaigning for his man this time. The coach seems confident that McCaffrey's play alone in the second half of the season can propel him to the promised land -- and given the statistical deluge the sophomore has unleashed so far, it's easy to see why.

McCaffrey's 1,518 all-purpose yards lead the country, and his average of 253 per game puts him on pace to smash Barry Sanders' NCAA single-season record in that category (3,250 yards). In Stanford's 56-35 romp over UCLA last week, McCaffrey rushed for 243 yards, breaking Gerhart's single-game school record. He also tacked on a 96-yard kick return.

"There have been billboards in New York, email campaigns, text message campaigns [put on by schools for Heisman candidates]," Shaw said. "None of that's been proven to work. ... I've studied it a lot. Nothing anyone does works outside of playing great football and winning games late in the year."

So the message to McCaffrey: Keep performing as the nation's most versatile player, lead the surging Cardinal to more wins, and the results will take care of themselves. That may seem like a lot to ask from a player who was frequently confused for a kicker at camps and all-star combines during the recruiting process, but the past six weeks have suggested otherwise.

“I was just lucky enough to run behind some great offensive linemen," McCaffrey said of his latest gaudy statistical performance. "I went through some holes and tried to make stuff happen."

A lot did indeed happen. Behind that clicking offensive line, McCaffrey has the Stanford run game firing at possibly its most effective clip ever -- the team has surpassed 300 rushing yards in three consecutive games for the first time in program history. McCaffrey's explosive and elusive style has matched perfectly with dominant blocking up front, even when opponents have geared up to stop him. He already has racked up 14 runs of more than 10 yards with eight or more defenders in the box, a tally which leads all Power 5 players.

It's easy to trace the roots of McCaffrey's speed. His father, Ed, was a two-time Super Bowl champion for the Denver Broncos and Shaw's teammate at Stanford about 25 years ago. His mother, Lisa, played soccer for the Cardinal.

"That's why Ed and I got together," Lisa joked to Sports Illustrated in 1998. "So we could breed fast white guys."

Mission accomplished on that front. The McCaffrey family now features four football-playing brothers -- Max is a wide receiver at Duke -- and Christian is unquestionably the standout. We've coined this the "Year of the Running Back" in the Pac-12, and McCaffrey's do-it-all capabilities have pushed him to the statistical top of a talented heap through six games.

"He's just a playmaker," quarterback Kevin Hogan said. "It doesn't matter where he is. He's just a playmaker when he gets the ball in his hands."

And that's the situation in which McCaffrey prefers to do his talking. He shies away from flashy news conference answers and excitement over individual accomplishments -- unless, of course, they come from teammates in sensational fashion (see Francis Owusu's behind-the-defender's back catch). That's when McCaffrey starts glowing.

"I started shaking when I saw him catch that ball," he said. "I had to sprint off the field to sit down. I didn't know how to react. I just had to process it."

McCaffrey took a few minutes to digest the mayhem, but there wasn't a lot of time for thinking or basking in its glory, and that was fine with him. An interception soon put the ball back in Stanford's hands, so McCaffrey trotted right back out to do what he enjoys most: Churning out yardage.

"We have a lot of dudes who are about working and not about the talk," cornerback Ronnie Harris said. "And [McCaffrey] is one of those guys that will come out and work for you."

And that's just what the doctor ordered for Stanford. The Cardinal are now on a five-game roll after their season-opening loss to Northwestern, and their offense (48.5 points per game in leage play) is performing like it's on a mission. They'd rather maintain that mojo and not focus on awards or individual glory at this point, even if McCaffrey's numbers are accruing at a dizzying rate.

"If the Heisman comes with wins, I wouldn't mind that at all," Harris shrugged, almost dismissively. "Give him the Heisman."

It's still obviously too early for that. Time will tell if McCaffrey and his Stanford team are following this same trajectory six weeks from now, so let's check back then.