Barry Sanders' 1988 game-by-game rushing stats

I've been getting a lot of hits from people searching for Barry Sanders' stats from his 1988 Heisman year with Oklahoma State. With UCF's Kevin Smith breathing down the neck of his record-setting year (or at least, the pre-bowl portion of it), there seems to be a renewed interest in these stats, which have been surprisingly hard to find on the Web. Update: Now in 2011 there's renewed interest due to Montee Ball's touchdown stats. Just note that Barry had 5 TDs in his bowl game, making a total of 44 TDs (42 rushing) in 12 games.

Years ago I did what I figured would be a 2-minute search for his game-by-game rushing totals, and only after 2 hours had I pieced together 10 of the 12 games from several different sources: the NCAA record book (he holds the record for total yards in 5 consecutive games), an account of the Nebraska game from that year, and an old Rick Reilly article touting Sanders for the Heisman after the Colorado game.

When I did the search again recently I was able to fill in all the rushing blanks pretty easily, and even some details beyond the raw yardage. And on August 8, 2014 ESPN featured his game-by-game stats, the first time I've seen them show up anywhere but here. Still, I'd like to know a few things like: where does 215 yards against Oklahoma rate on the Sooners' all-time list?

1988 Regular-season stats (not including bowl game)

Rushing: 344 rushes, 2,628 yards (7.6 ave), 37 TDs
Receiving: 19 receptions, 106 yards, 0 TDs
Returns: 21 Kick returns, 421 yards, 1TD; 10 punt returns, 94 yards, 1TD

Overall 1988 stats (includes bowl game)
as above, except:
Rushing: 373 rushes, 2,850 yards (7.6 ave), 42 TDs (44 Total)
Passing: 1 of 2 for 17 yards

 

Barry Sanders' 1988 Game-by-Game Rushing Stats

Date	Opponent	Result	Att.	Yards	Notes
Sept. 10	Miami, Ohio	W 52-20	18	178	Returned opening kickoff 100 yards for TD. 2 TDs rushing, including an 89-yarder
Sept. 24	Texas A&M	W 52-15	20	157	2 TDs rushing, including a 58 yard score. Also had 61-yard punt return for TD
Oct. 1	Tulsa	W 56-35	33	304	5 TDs; broke school record for yardage for the 1st of three times in '88 season
Oct. 8	at Colorado	W 41-21	24	174	4 TDs including 65-yard TD run
Oct. 15	at Nebraska	L 63-42	35	189	4 TDs; at the time, the 4th-most rushing yards against any Nebraska team.
Oct. 22	Missouri	W 49-21	25	154	2 TDs including 45-yard score
Oct. 29	at Kansas State	W 45-27	37	320	3 TDs; the 2nd best rushing tally in Big Eight history at the time.
Nov. 5	Oklahoma	L 31-28	39	215	2 TDs; Mike Gaddis gained 213 yards for the Sooners.
Nov. 12	Kansas	W 63-24	37	312	5 TDs; broke single-season TD record with 31 for the season at this point.
Nov. 19	at Iowa State	W 49-28	32	293	4 TDs including an 80-yard TD run; broke Big 8 season rushing record with this game
Dec. 3	vs. Texas Tech (in Tokyo)	W 45-42	44	332	4 TDs. Heisman was awarded at 8am Tokyo time the day of the game.
Regular season total:			344*	2,628	39 total TDs; 238.9 yards/game average
Dec. 30	vs. Wyoming (in San Diego)	W 62-14	29	222	5 TDs, a Holiday Bowl record. Also completed 1 of 2 passes for 17 yards.
Overall season total:			373	2,850	44 TDs; 106 receiving yds and 515 return yards

*Thanks to ESPN declaring Sanders' season the best ever, I tracked down the missing carry that was in this column for 7 years. Now this column finally adds up correctly.

Records

In addition to total rushing yards, Sanders set 33 other NCAA records in 1988, including:

• Most TDs (39) and most rushing TDs (37) (note: in '88, his 5 bowl game TDs didn't count)
• Most points scored (234)
• Most 300+ yard games in a season/career (4)
• Most all-purpose yards in a season (3,249) and per-game (295.5; this record was 50 years old, held by Byron "Whizzer" White) 

Sanders also helped get two of his friends into the record book. The first was teammate Gerald Hudson. Sanders had so many yards in 1988 that he and Hudson broke the record for most yards by two teammates in one season, with 2,997. We see who did the heavy lifting there! This record was broken by USC's Reggie Bush and LenDale White in 2005 when they combined for 3,042 yards. This is one of Sanders' records that needed to broken, even if it was only because their Rose Bowl yards counted and Sanders' didn't. Arkansas' Darren McFadden and Felix Jones need 201 more yards to break it this season.

The other friend that Sanders helped was his brother, Byron, with whom he still holds the record for most yards in a season for two siblings. Byron did his part on this one, though, rushing for 1,062 yards for Northwestern that year.

Finally, here's a quick video with some highlights. Can someone tell me just what the hell he does at 0:22?

Comments

[Mark Watson]

Hey man, thanks for the Sanders stats... can't believe they are so hard to find... MW

[SportsRatings]

Thanks Mark

As I said on another board, it's ridiculous that his HIGH SCHOOL stats are available on his own site, but not these! Bizarre.

[Randal]

What's more amazing is all those stats are based on the 11 game regular season. His incredible Holiday Bowl isn't figured into the record. I remember the media (ESPN) making a big deal about Kevin Smith last year approaching Barry's records. Smith played in 12 regular season games, a conference USA championship game and his bowl game stats were included for a total of 14 games. Had Barry played 14 games he would have cruised over 3,000 yards and 50 TDs!

[Sander Barrys]

Wait a minute Randal. You wrote "Had Barry played 14 games he would have cruised over 3,000 yards and 50 TDs!" Look at his numbers again. He seemed to get stronger as the season wore on. His best stretch is his last five games. I say he would have approached 3700 yards with three more games.

[RAJOD]

If they keep adding games to the mix the record will be beaten.
But I don't think his ave per game will, that will be tougher to do.

[jason]

damn thanks man iv been tryin to find these stats for a long time.

[totally off topic]

Where can I order a full yard of ale made of plastic? It must hold 2.5
UK pints, be 3 UK feet in length and in the traditional style. It must
also be shipped to me in the UK within 8 weeks.

[Ben]

Barry rules

[Counter Strike]

yeah berry best

[Cricket]

lol agree

[CaseyClark]

Best single season performance I have ever seen in football...period.

[Bedeker]

my father-in-law, Dean Cramer, was a Big 8 referee in the 1980's and refereed 3 games in which Barry Sanders played, and I believe he rushed for 300 yards in all of them. Dean told me once that in the 3rd game Barry, as he was lining up right in front of him (Dean being a referee he stood right behind the tailback) he tapped him on his white cap and said "you're my lucky charm".