Big 12 Football: What happened to the rush?

John Hadl - The RusherJohn Hadl - The PasserIn a post a few days ago about running backs in the Big 12, I referred to the trend toward passing and how that left most running backs playing second banana. Naturally, one would wonder whether the best RBs in the country are going to go to schools outside the Big 12 – fearing they may not get an opportunity to shine. It’s probably still too early in this passing trend to determine if the Big-12 is getting snubbed by the best rushers, but it’s definitely likely at some point.

This follows up a Big 12 Football Preview series.

Big 12 Football Preview: Part IV: Running Backs

In Part IV, I showed the differential in average passing versus average rushing for each season since the Big 12 was founded. I thought I would take a look at the Big 8 archives to see how the trend has developed for an even longer period of time.

As incredible as the internet is, I spend about half the time wondering why it isn’t better. It isn’t the internet itself that falls short, but rather the information that is not available. For example, suppose you want to find a list of the eight Big-8 teams by rushing or by passing for say, 1993 or 1983 or 1973. Good luck! It isn’t on line anywhere and it isn’t even in the old Big-8 media guides if you happen to have one. Sure it’s there if you have every media guide because you can look at the previous season in each. But, the quality of sites we’ve come to expect with professional sports just isn’t there for colleges – and probably never will be.

Even so, I’m going to do a little more passing vs rushing history in this post – gathering what I can.

The fact that the Big 8 was the #1 rushing conference is no surprise to anyone who lived during those times. The fact that it is now the #1 passing conference is no surprise to anyone who is alive today. What’s amazing is how you can transform so completely from one to the other. It’s taken a lot of time, but I’m not aware of any other conference changing so much.

Anyway, here are a few interesting tidbits.

The first and only consensus All-American quarterback in the Big-6-7-8 was none other than David Jaynes (Kansas) in 1973 – and this list goes back to 1913 for these teams! If you knew that, you’re pretty good. There were nine other QB All-Americans, but even they mostly represent a list that’s more of a “Who’s that?” than a “Who’s who”. Paul Christman (Missouri), Jack Mitchell (Oklahoma), Darrell Royal (Oklahoma), Eddie Crowder (Oklahoma), John Hadl (Kansas), Jerry Tagge (Nebraska), Dave Humm (Nebraska), Vince Ferragamo (Nebraska), Steve Taylor (Nebraska). It’s a little ironic that the last four were from NU and yet, Nebraska has been left a little out in the cold compared to some other schools in the Big-12 in terms of the passing game recently.

While there was one consensus All-American QB in Big-6-7-8 history, there were a whopping 25 consensus All-American running backs – and another 21 All-American rushers who were not consensus!

How about these names? John Hadl (yes, also a consensus running back), Gale Sayers, Steve Owens, Greg Pruitt, Joe Washington, Billy Sims, Mike Rozier, Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders, Rashann Salaam, among other consensus rushers. How does that list stack up to David Jaynes?

Of course, it’s a different world now. Since 2000, there have been six consensus QBs and only one consensus RB.

Although I can’t give you the league averages for all the years in the Big-8 (passing vs rushing), I can give you the differential between the best team in the conference and the worst. Beginning with 1937 (Big-6), there was never one single year where the passing leader had more yards than the rushing leader until 1996 (Big 12).

Here’s the entire table. The number represents the differential between rushing and passing. Comments below.

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It’s interesting to note the huge differentials in the 50’s and 70’s – less so in the 60’s and over the last decade of the Big-8.

It’s also particularly interesting that in 1969, passing almost caught rushing. That was the year that Lynn Dickey (K-State) dominated the record books. His 2,476 yards obliterated the previous record of 1,645! And, his conference record for passing yards held up until 1985 (Mike Norseth, Kansas, 2,995).

Now, to compare apples to apples, here are the differentials between the leading rushing team and the leading passing team in the Big 12 beginning with 1996.

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And, finally, shown are the records for the Big-8 and Big-12 for passing yards in a game and season as well as rushing yards for a game and season.

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I have a mixed emotions as to which I prefer. I grew up watching teams in the 70’s pile up huge rushing stats – just rolling over other teams. And, it’s more fun to watch each yard gained rushing than passing. Watch a 50 yard bomb and the only exciting part is the catch. Watch a 50 yard run and every step is exciting. Of course, being the best at running the ball didn’t necessarily translate into being #1. I can remember a few times when some team came up against the Big-8 and passed circles around them.

The same is true for passing today. Even though the Big 12 dominates, it doesn’t mean a national championship. Passing is more fun in some respects because it means you can rack up more points faster and teams can come from behind a lot easier. Of course, the games last longer, but if you like what you are watching, that’s a plus.

Overall, I don’t really care. As long as the Big 12 provides lots of stats for me to crunch, I can live with it either way.