There's a lot of talk about Central Florida's Kevin Smith, and how he might break Barry Sanders' single-season rushing record in UCF's bowl game against Mississippi State.
Smith will enter the game as the NCAA's leading rusher with 2,448 yards; Sanders ran for 2,628 in his 1988 Heisman season, so Smith needs slightly less than his 188-yard average to top the mark. Mississippi State's rushing defense is 65th in raw average yards allowed, so there's a very good chance he'll get the record.
There's a problem, though, one that should put a huge asterisk by Smith's mark. No, nothing about steroids. And nothing to do with UCF's comparatively light schedule, or the fact that they've already played 13 games this year. Yards are yards, and a season is a season, and if Smith rushes for more yards in 2007 than Sanders did in 1988, he should have the record. But the problem is, we'll be considering Smith's entire season, but not Sanders'.
The fact is, while the NCAA will count Smith's bowl game in the total, Sanders' bowl game from 1988 did not count in his total. In 2002 the NCAA changed a rule, making bowl game statistics part of the season totals. That's not a problem; what is, is that they didn't go back and add bowl game totals to the current records.
So the very definition of "season" is different for Sanders and Smith.
Sanders, of course, went on to rush for 222 yards against Wyoming in the 1988 Holiday Bowl. It was a fair performance by Barry's standards; only a few yards shy of his 239 yard average. But while it gave him 2,850 yards for the full 1988 season, for the purposes of the record he has only a paltry 2,628.
This means it's quite likely Smith will gain 181+ yards against Mississippi State, making him the single-season rushing king, yet leaving him a couple hundred yards short of the amount of yards Sanders rushed for in 1988. He will surpass Sanders while not really getting very close to him at all.
A strange paradox, wouldn't you say? And a bit unfair.
Now, if Smith were to rush for just above 400 yards (403, to be exact), he could truly surpass Sanders, and there would be no asterisk needed. Regardless of how many games are in a season, or who you play, a yard is a yard, a season is a season, and to begrudge Smith the record in that case would be to behave in a manner similar to those louts who denigrated Roger Maris' accomplishment.
But what's happenening here is akin to taking several of Ruth's home runs and not counting them.
Kevin Smith has had an amazing season, no doubt. He rushed for over 200 yards five times, and only had one game under 100 yards. But regardless of whether he breaks* the record, there's no comparison between his season and Sanders'. Though, as I said earlier, it has no bearing on the record, Sanders had fewer games, and tougher foes. And still, he ran for more yards, averaging 50 more yards per game.
Here is a game-by-game rundown of Smith's 2007 season, with 150+ yard games in bold and 300 yard game in red:
Kevin Smith 2007 yds
North Carolina State 217
Texas 149
Memphis 124
Louisiana-Lafayette 223
East Carolina 147
South Florida 55
Tulsa 170
Southern Miss 175
Marshall 188
UAB 320
Southern Methodist 177
UTEP 219
Tulsa 284
Regular-season Total: 2,448 (188.3 yds/game)
and for comparison, Barry Sanders' 1988 season with Oklahoma State:
Barry Sanders 1988 yds
Miami Ohio 178
Texas A&M 157
Tulsa 304
Colorado 174
Nebraska 189
Missouri 154
Kansas St 320
Oklahoma 215
Kansas 312
Iowa State 293
Texas Tech 332
regular-season Total: 2,628 (238.9 yds/game)
Wyoming 222
Overall season Total: 2,850
I hope that clears things up.
Thank you VERY much!!! I have been hoping someone brought this up and you have done a great job at sheding light on this matter.
Posted by: brokinrhythm | December 03, 2007 at 12:50 PM
Good Article.
24K could have surpassed Barry Sanders by now had he played the 2nd half of a few games this season. He sat out since the games were in hand...The Memphis and ULA-LA numbers were put up in the first half.
Also, he put up 149 yards and 2 touchdowns against Texas who has statistically the 10th best rushing defense in the country this year.
I realize he plays in Conference USA but he also runs behind a CUSA Line.... Imagine if he was in the SEC....
He was actually recruited by Ron Zook at Florida, but Zook got fired and Kevin came to UCF...Imagine a Tebow/24K combination.....
It is ridiculous that he did not even get invited as a finalist for the Doak Walker award.....
Posted by: Knight99&03 | December 04, 2007 at 06:47 PM
:: 24K could have surpassed Barry Sanders by now had he played the 2nd half of a few games this season.
Well, Sanders' OK State team had quite a few blowouts itself that he didn't play the nearly whole game in, as well as playing some of the toughest defenses of the time. Nebraska may be swiss cheese this year, but in 1988 Sanders' 189 was the 4th most anyone had ever rushed for against them.
That said, Smith should have been a Doak finalist. Hart just didn't play enough this year, and there was a bit of career-reward going on there.
Posted by: SportsRatings | December 05, 2007 at 02:10 PM
I believe that if you also went back to count all the bowl games in the stats, then you would find out the Hines Ward would have become the first player to run, throw and receive over 1000 yards in his career. He had a big passing day during a bowl game that would have put him over the 1000 yard mark in his career. Pretty impressive.
Posted by: thisguy | December 11, 2007 at 09:40 AM
Keep in mind that the 222 yards that Barry gained in his bowl game came in just three quarters (and a few times during the regular season, Barry sat out in the 4th).
Posted by: Brian | December 29, 2007 at 05:33 PM
Kevin who? see what he does in the pros I have a feeling that it will shape up that the fact that he had MORE CARRIES MORE GAMES and got close to Barry will be the absolute highlight of his career
Posted by: Dave | June 03, 2008 at 10:02 PM