skitch815 wrote:ReasonablySober wrote:This is the best read about his day.On the year, Gordon leads the nation (obviously) in rushing yards (1,909), rushing touchdowns (23), yards from scrimmage (1,992), and plays covering at least 20 yards (and 30 yards, and 40 yards, and 50 yards). At his current pace of 190.9 yards per game, Gordon will surpass Barry Sanders’s single-season rushing record (2,628) if Wisconsin goes on to play in the Big Ten championship game, which would give the team four remaining contests, including a bowl game. Saturday’s win, their fifth in a row, left the Badgers alone in first place in the B1G’s West Division.
With Gordon’s name appearing alongside the likes of Tomlinson and Sanders, maybe the stat line is all anyone really needs to know to put Gordon’s day into context. On the way to the national mark, Gordon passed 1999 Heisman winner Ron Dayne for the single-game school record, and will almost certainly break Dayne’s single-season rushing mark (2,109) as well, possibly as soon as next weekend against Iowa. Over the past two decades, Wisconsin has boasted an unbroken lineage of wildly productive tailbacks, and from a statistical perspective Gordon is or will soon be looking down on almost all of them. (If, by some miracle, Gordon decides to return for his senior season in 2015, Dayne’s FBS record for career rushing yards [6,397] may be in his sights.)
I think if he continues his pace and the Badgers win the B1G Championship game, the Heisman is his.
ETA: It's worth remembering that Sanders set the record in 11 games.
In 1988 Sanders had 2628 yards on 344 carries. 7.6 yards per carry. At his current pace Gordon would break the record in 40 fewer carries. I keep hearing that it would be less impressive because of the number of games but I think it would actually be more of a feat due to the number of times he touches the ball.
Really great point.