The proverbial "1,000 yard rusher"

[Enhance]

No.

Case in point - Marlon Lucky was a 1,000 yard rusher.

Lucky was a great running back and pass catcher out of the back field. He was just built up to be Reggie Bush out of high school.

I still wouldn't put him in the "great" running back category, but it depends on your definition. IMO, Ameer Abdullah was great. Ahman Green was great.

But, you're spot on about the other part - his biggest downfall is something he had no control over. He was a five star back with incredible expectations planted on his shoulders. Had he been a three or four star back, I think history would remember him in a slightly more favorable light.

 

[zoogs]

Marlon Lucky didn't even end up as the #1 option in his senior year. He notched 233 yards against Nevada in his top rushing year (1019 yards) and a lot of receptions (it was 2007 and Sam Keller relied on his outlet). So there are reasons other than unfair expectations why he wasn't remembered as 'great'.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Nothing against Lucky, but he got a lot of extra stats in 2007 when NU was getting their a$$ kicked. The defense was going to allow dump off passes to the RB or run plays to Lucky instead of allowing a deep pass. I wanted Lucky to be great, and he was hampered by all the expectations put on him, but he was a pretty average RB during his time. By the time Lucky was a senior, he was being passed up by a young Roy Helu.

 

[Crusader Husker]

I think a 1000 yard rusher is still awesome. They only negative today to that statement is that there are more games. But, this is also true. Way more passing today. Many teams like to use multiple rushers to keep guys healthy. I really think it is more of a complicated question than you think. Offenses have changed.

 

[In the Deed the Glory]

I think it is more important to average 90-100 yards per game from a back than 1000 yards. I guess that is closer to 1200 now. It just shows you have an ability to run the football and balance out the game. It would be awesome to get back to averaging 250 yards rushing a game (as a team), but I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[famoustitles]

I'd rather see good ypc averages over anything else to measure success

 

[MichiganDad3]

I'd rather see good ypc averages over anything else to measure success

I would a$$ to this that variability in ypc is also important. I would rather have a back that average 4 ypc and never has a carry less than 3 yards than a back that averages 10 yards per carry, but has two 60+ carries per game and everything else is less tan 2 yards.

 

[Saunders]

I think Lucky was simply in the wrong offense. Put him in a wide open spread option offense (think Oregon or Baylor) and he'd have shined.

 

[Hilltop]

I could care less if one guy is getting to 1000 but rather care if we have the per game YPC stat at 4.0+. To me the yards per carry stat really shows how effectively we are running the ball. If we average 4+ per carry, teams will have to add a player to the box, opening up more passing opportunities.

 

[Redux]

I would rather see 10 +wins at the end of the year and at least a division title to show for it. Don't care if we have a 600 yard rusher.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

We might not have a 1,000 yard rusher this season because we have 4 - 6 good running backs competing for carries. A couple of these guys might be great running backs, but still need to establish themselves. Because they have different styles & skillsets -- and the likelihood of dings and injuries -- we probably won't go end to end with a featured running back. But one of these guys could emerge and a 1,000 yard season is more than possible (an injured Terrell Newby came close last year.)

It could be fun to watch.

These running backs will have to split fewer total carries between them because we will have a stronger passing game than traditional Nebraska offenses. Talented receivers with game breaking potential deserve touches, too.

It could be fun to watch.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

To answer the original question, I think the YPG and YPC stat go hand-in-hand. The two stats can't really be looked at separately, in a vacuum.

Having an RB go for 1,000+ yards means that the run game is fairly effective and there is a running back who is a clear leader at the position. But, if he accumulates those yards by carrying 30+ times a game, then he isn't very efficient.

If a guy is average 6-7 YPC then he may be a home run threat, and get big chunk plays, but he may not be durable enough to carry the ball 20+ times a game. I loved Roy Helu, and he was a great back at NU, but he was a guy who would always seemed to get dinged up when he was asked to carry the workload.

I also don't care about stats, as long as the team is winning. However, I am a believer that NU must have an effective running game to be a winning football team. That is through a combination of total rushing yards and rushing YPC.

 

[wiuhusker]

I would say a number around 200 ypg on the ground, no matter who it is, will help us be successful this year. For reference last year we averaged 169 ypg and 4.2 ypc. Now this year it will be tougher as it will be more reliant on the RB and not zone read and designed QB run game. But if we can get to the 200 number and be around 4.5-5.0 ypc I think our offense will be pretty tough to stop this year.

And to answer the OP question I would much rather be around the 5.0 ypc mark.

 

[suh_fan93]

I think Marlon Lucky was a little better than a lot of people remember or are giving him credit for in this thread. He did catch 75 passes his junior season so he was a threat out of the backfield also. Not the greatest rb ever obviously at Nebraska but he was a solid back. Second team All Big 12 his junior year and he was later signed by the Bengals. His line that he ran behind also was not the greatest by far in Nebraska history either. The only notable there being Matt Slauson. His 1,019 yards rushing his junior season was the first 1,000 rushing season by a Husker in 3 years at the time.

 

[zoogs]

I think you mean his Jr. season. Helu led the team in yards in '08 and it wasn't close. And Helu was under 900.

So really, I think Lucky's claim to fame was the 75 receptions with Sam Keller in '07. Crazy numbers, and he was quite good out of the backfield, but normally even with a great receiving back your QB doesn't check down *that* much.

The OLs were also pretty solid; they'd come a long way in three to four years. It wasn't just Slauson who played quite a bit in the league; Lydon Murtha, Carl Nicks IIRC were also from this era. It was a pretty good line, I think.