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This Barry Sanders worship is odd.


Old-school coaches would boot Sanders off the field for not simply taking the hand-off and hitting the hole hard.  They'd bitch and moan about his dancing around.  Ricky Williams would dominate any era...so would Brown, Gordon, Simpson, Herschel, Emmitt, Payton, Bo, et al.



If you put Herschel or Campbell at tailback in the 20s, people would chastise you for lining up your nose guard in the backfield.  But again, I don't think old-timey coaches would put up with the fact that Sanders (in his NFL career) had the most carries for no gain or a loss in history.  It'd be the principle of the thing.  Get to the hole ASAP and take your 3 yards and a cloud of dust, young man!

Ah. I see what's going on. Gator fan who thinks Emmitt Smith is in the same universe as Barry Sanders. That always brings out the lulz.
You do realize that Barry Sanders rushed for 2,850 yards- averaged 7.8 YPC, and rushed for 42 touchdowns in 12 games, right? Most college players on good teams now are playing 13 or more games and they still can't come close to what he did in 12. Barry Sanders total yards from scrimmage in 1988- 3,471 yards. Total touchdowns? 44.
Barry Sanders never had the greatest OL of all-time in the NFL like Emmitt Smith. He never played with a Hall of Fame QB like Troy Aikman. Never played with a Hall of Fame WR like Michael Irvin. His OL was mediocre to terrible for the entire tenure of his NFL career. His QB's were absolute hot garbage his entire career. Rodney Peete, Bob Gagliano, Eric Hipple, Andre Ware, Eric Kramer, Dave Krieg, Scott Mitchell, Charlie Batch. Kinda sad when a 38 year old Dave Krieg who he only had for 1 year was probably the best QB he ever played with. These are the QB's directing his offense. Played with some pretty good receivers like Herman Moore and Brett Perriman, but neither of them were close to the level of impact player that Michael Irvin was.
You can say what you want about the most carries for no gains or a loss in NFL history- but he had to do a lot on his own just to make a 5 yard gain sometimes. And despite this- he still averaged over 5 yards per carry for his NFL career- Barry and only the great Jim Brown are the only backs in NFL history with over 1,000 carries to average 5+ YPC. He AVERAGED 1,526.9 rushing yards per season. His lowest rushing total was 1,100+ yards- a season in which he missed 5 games with a leg injury. He ran for 1,100+ in 10 straight NFL seasons. He won the NFL rushing crown 4 times. Could've very easily been 6 times if he stayed in games just to chase those records. Instead he'd take himself out of games at the end of the season if the Lions were up comfortably. And he wasn't running through mack truck sized holes in the pros like Emmitt Smith. And when he did get big holes he was gone for 40+. Holes that Emmitt had that he'd get 15 yards out of- when Barry had those kind of holes he was getting 40+ easy. They just honestly were not in the same universe. Barry Sanders ability as a runner was just not of this planet.

Sanders was incredible to me also.

he is the most incredible player in any sport to watch probably ever. How many players in any sport have a top 50 highlight reel? Lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBhn1wMyzV4&t=18s

perhaps she was a Mike Rozier fan.
at the time of this list December of 1991
All-time rushing -  Years - Yards - Att - Avg. TD
Mike Rozier 1981-83 4,780 668 7.16 49
Ken Clark 1987-89 3,037 494 6.15 29
I.M. Hipp 1977-79 2,814 495 5.68 21
Keith Jones 1984-87 2,488 398 6.25 32
Rick Berns 1976-78 2,449 440 5.56 28
Roger Craig 1979-82 2,446 407 6.01 26
Jeff Kinney 1969-71 2,244 545 4.11 29
Doug DuBose 1982-85 2,205 362 6.09 16
Bobby Reynolds 1950-52 2,196 378 5.80 24
Jarvis Redwine 1979-80 2,161 304 7.10 17
________________________________________
the back with the highest average had the most attempts - by far
the back with the fewest attempts had the 2nd highest average

I was staring at this chart and it occurred to me some of it is self fulfilling. If you’re gonna be high on the rushin list, your carries need to be high, and your YPC need to be high. 
So if we look at carries through 1991 (assuming I used excel right), four of the top six averaged 4.5 or fewer. Three were at 4.3 or worse. 
My assumption is the data will always be to a degree to noisy, but it seemed like this might not be the most useful approach to it. 

Ah. I see what's going on. Gator fan who thinks Emmitt Smith is in the same universe as Barry Sanders. That always brings out the lulz.
You do realize that Barry Sanders rushed for 2,850 yards- averaged 7.8 YPC, and rushed for 42 touchdowns in 12 games, right? Most college players on good teams now are playing 13 or more games and they still can't come close to what he did in 12. Barry Sanders total yards from scrimmage in 1988- 3,471 yards. Total touchdowns? 44.
Barry Sanders never had the greatest OL of all-time in the NFL like Emmitt Smith. He never played with a Hall of Fame QB like Troy Aikman. Never played with a Hall of Fame WR like Michael Irvin. His OL was mediocre to terrible for the entire tenure of his NFL career. His QB's were absolute hot garbage his entire career. Rodney Peete, Bob Gagliano, Eric Hipple, Andre Ware, Eric Kramer, Dave Krieg, Scott Mitchell, Charlie Batch. Kinda sad when a 38 year old Dave Krieg who he only had for 1 year was probably the best QB he ever played with. These are the QB's directing his offense. Played with some pretty good receivers like Herman Moore and Brett Perriman, but neither of them were close to the level of impact player that Michael Irvin was.
You can say what you want about the most carries for no gains or a loss in NFL history- but he had to do a lot on his own just to make a 5 yard gain sometimes. And despite this- he still averaged over 5 yards per carry for his NFL career- Barry and only the great Jim Brown are the only backs in NFL history with over 1,000 carries to average 5+ YPC. He AVERAGED 1,526.9 rushing yards per season. His lowest rushing total was 1,100+ yards- a season in which he missed 5 games with a leg injury. He ran for 1,100+ in 10 straight NFL seasons. He won the NFL rushing crown 4 times. Could've very easily been 6 times if he stayed in games just to chase those records. Instead he'd take himself out of games at the end of the season if the Lions were up comfortably. And he wasn't running through mack truck sized holes in the pros like Emmitt Smith. And when he did get big holes he was gone for 40+. Holes that Emmitt had that he'd get 15 yards out of- when Barry had those kind of holes he was getting 40+ easy. They just honestly were not in the same universe. Barry Sanders ability as a runner was just not of this planet.

Wow.  Breathe.  You're debating no one.  

your statement was that if backs like Rozier had more carries their average would eventually go down

yes, he had 668 carries at Nebraska

I would guess his final 168 carries were about the same average as his first 500, maybe better

in 82 as a junior Rozier had 242 attempts for a 7.0 average

in 83 as a senior he had 275 attempts for a 7.8 yard average

I would look at this as the percentage of running plays where X is the ball carrier.  Obviously, if a team stops passing and only runs, their YPC is likely to go down.  If they switch off between X and Y running the ball, I'm not sure that means that both X and Y will have better YPC than they would if only X had those carries, presuming X does not get hurt or dinged up.

A RB who is not in sufficient physical condition to carry the ball 35 times a game would of course see his YPC drop.  One who was might not see it.  So, this could be running back dependent.  The knock I always heard on Bo was that he would tire and have to come out of a game.

ushing & Receiving
 

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[th][/th] [th][/th] [th]Rushing[/th] [th]Receiving[/th] [th]Scrimmage[/th]

[th]Year[/th] [th]School[/th] [th]Conf[/th] [th]Class[/th] [th]Pos[/th] [th]G[/th] [th]Att[/th] [th]Yds[/th] [th]Avg[/th] [th]TD[/th] [th]Rec[/th] [th]Yds[/th] [th]Avg[/th] [th]TD[/th] [th]Plays[/th] [th]Yds[/th] [th]Avg[/th] [th]TD[/th]

[th]1982[/th] Auburn SEC RB 11 127 829 6.5 9 5 64 12.8 0 132 893 6.8 9 [th]1983[/th] Auburn SEC RB 11 158 1213 7.7 12 13 73 5.6 2 171 1286 7.5 14 [th]1984[/th] Auburn SEC RB 12 87 475 5.5 5 4 62 15.5 0 91 537 5.9 5 [th]1985[/th] Auburn SEC RB 11 278 1786 6.4 17 4 73 18.3 0 282 1859 6.6 17 [th]Career[/th] Auburn 650 4303 6.6 43 26 272 10.5 2 676 4575 6.8 45 That 278 carries his last year is a strong number these days, but not that many for those days.  And for the inevitable point of comparison: Rushing & Receiving   * indicates bowl stats included Share & more Modify & Share Table Embed this Table Get as Excel Workbook (experimental) Get table as CSV (for Excel) Strip Mobile Formatting Copy Link to Table to Clipboard About Sharing Tools Video: SR Sharing Tools & How-to Video: Stats Table Tips & Tricks Glossary [th][/th] [th][/th] [th]Rushing[/th] [th]Receiving[/th] [th]Scrimmage[/th] [th]Year[/th] [th]School[/th] [th]Conf[/th] [th]Class[/th] [th]Pos[/th] [th]G[/th] [th]Att[/th] [th]Yds[/th] [th]Avg[/th] [th]TD[/th] [th]Rec[/th] [th]Yds[/th] [th]Avg[/th] [th]TD[/th] [th]Plays[/th] [th]Yds[/th] [th]Avg[/th] [th]TD[/th] [th]1980[/th] Georgia SEC RB 11 274 1616 5.9 15 7 70 10.0 0 281 1686 6.0 15 [th]1981[/th] Georgia SEC RB 11 385 1891 4.9 18 14 84 6.0 2 399 1975 4.9 20 [th]1982[/th] Georgia SEC RB 11 335 1752 5.2 16 5 89 17.8 1 340 1841 5.4 17 [th]Career[/th] Georgia 994 5259 5.3 49 26 243 9.3 3 1020 5502 5.4 52 [color][size][font] Herschel's YPC did drop with more carries, but some portion of that was the lack of any passing game in 1983 after Belue had retired.  The 1981 team had Belue who could pass pretty well but was accustomed to leaning on Walker, and he was injured early in 1982 in practice and barely played in the first game. [/font][/size][/color]