The Nevada Wolf Pack football team is rushing into the NCAA record books.
The Wolf Pack running attack is unquestionably the best in the nation this
season. The Pack, which has run for an incredible 1,701 yards and 19
touchdowns on the ground in its last four games, leads the country at 320.14
rushing yards a game. The closest team to the Pack right now is Georgia
Tech, 28.51 rushing yards per game behind.
"Every week our goal has been to run for 300 yards as a team," Pack running
back Vai Taua said last week. "We might have to raise our goal now."
Make no mistake, those fancy numbers and lofty goals didn't come about
because the Pack runs on every play. The Pack's 7.23 average gain per rush
is also an eye-opening 1.15 average per rush ahead of second place
Alabama-Birmingham. The Pack and UAB are the only Football Bowl Sub-Division
teams in the nation that average more than six yards per rush.
In an era of spread offenses when everyone it seems from wide receivers,
quarterbacks and running backs to the guards and tackles go out for passes,
the versatile Pack offense is also reminding us of the leather helmet,
seven-yards-and-a-cloud-of-Field Turf-rubber days.
The Pack's 559 rushing yards against UNLV and its 484 against Idaho are the
top two rushing games this season by a FBS team.
Season records, though, are all well and good. The Pack, after all, is no
stranger to leading the NCAA in a particular season in an offensive
category. This is the same school, remember, that led the nation in total
offense in 1986 (I-AA), 1993, 1995 and 1996. They also led the country in
points per game in 1948, 1986 and 1991 and led the nation in passing offense
in 1946, 1948, 1995 and 1997.
So, as you can see, fancy offensive numbers and the Wolf Pack aren't
exactly strangers.
But the numbers this running attack is generating is a bit different. We're
not talking just one-season records here. Like Taua said, it's time the Pack
raises its goals.
First of all, the Pack has never led the nation in rushing. That, alone,
would be a noteworthy accomplishment. Frank Hawkins led Division I-AA in
rushing in 1978 (1,445 yards), 1979 (1,683) and 1980 (1,719). Chance
Kretschmer led all FBS schools in 2001 (1,732/157.5 a game). But as a team,
well, the Pack has always thrown the ball too much to challenge the great
running teams for any rushing titles.
But that all began to change five years ago with Chris Ault's brilliant and
revolutionary Pistol offense, which seemingly combines the run-crazy
wishbone with the pass-happy Spread attack.
And last year quarterback Colin Kaepernick and running back Vai Taua jumped
into the NCAA record book by becoming one of 46 teammates in history to rush
for 1,000 or more yards in the same season.
That, it seems, is only the start of the Pack's assault on the NCAA record
book.
This season it appears that Kaepernick and Taua will join an even more
select group. The duo could join just four other combinations who have each
gained over 1,000 yards as teammates in the same season in consecutive
years. Minnesota's Marion Barber and Laurence Maroney did it in 2004-05,
Arkansas' Darren McFadden and Felix Jones did it in 2006-07, West Virginia's
Pat White and Steve Slaton did it in 2006-07 and Louisiana-Lafayette's Mike
Desormeaux and Tyrell Fenroy did it in 2007-08.
And, don't forget, Kaepernick and Taua are just juniors this season. Next
year, if everything goes as planned this year, Taua and Kaepernick could
become the first teammates in NCAA history to reach 1,000 yards in the same
season three consecutive years.
That's how special the Pack running game is right now. But we're getting
ahead of ourselves.
This year could bring an even more special moment, if the sun, moon and
stars all line up perfectly over the next six games.
Kaepernick, with 691 yards, and Taua, with 609, appear to be locks once
again to reach 1,000 yards this year. The Pack will likely have six more
games (with a bowl game) so they would only have to average 51.5 yards
(Kaepernick) and 65.2 yards (Taua) a game to reach the magical 1,000-yard
level. Kaepernick, after all, is averaging 99 yards a game (seemingly on one
and a half carries) and Taua, who missed two games with an injury, is
averaging 122 a game.
OK, before we start rewriting the entire NCAA record book, it's time for a
little history lesson. The 1971 Oklahoma Sooners are the all-time kings of
running the ball. The Sooners, which went 11-1 for coach Chuck Fairbanks,
ran for a NCAA-record 5,196 yards in 1971 using the wishbone offense. It was
an unstoppable running attack. But even that team only had two 1,000-yard
rushers in running back Greg Pruitt (1,760 yards) and quarterback Jack
Mildren (1,289).
The Pack, which set a school record with 3,611 rushing yards in 2008 (at
2,241 after 7 games the Pack will break that record again this year), won't
ever come close to 5,000 yards on the ground. So the Sooners will likely
remain the all-time rushing kings.
But the Pack has a chance to at least enter into the conversation this
year.
The secret weapon is the return this season of fifth-year senior Luke
Lippincott.
Lippincott could give the Pack the best rushing backfield in NCAA history.
Lippincott, who has 521 yards this year, along with Crazy Legs Kaepernick
and Too Tough Taua, could give the Wolf Pack the first trio of 1,000-yard
rushers in the same season in the history of college football.
Is it likely? Probably not. But is it possible? Definitely.
Lippincott would have to average 80 yards a game (with a bowl game) to
force the NCAA to create a separate rushing category in its record book just
for the Wolf Pack. The odds of Lippincott doing so, admittedly, do not look
good. The fifth-year senior got the bulk of his carries and yards this year
(42 for 284) when Taua was sidelined with an elbow injury.
Lippincott, make no mistake, is certainly capable of rushing for 1,000
yards in a season and has already done so with 1,420 in 2007. He'd get his
1,000 by Week 9 in most every other backfield in the country. But, with the
Pack, he just so hapens to be in the same backfield with two other guys
(Kaepernick and Taua) who also have a 1,000-yard season under their belt. It
is believed that the Pack is the first team in the history of the NCAA to
have three players with a 1,000-yard season already on their resume on the
same team.
With Taua on the field this year, Lippincott has averaged just seven
carries a game. So there just might not be enough carries to go around for
Lippincott to help the Pack set the unheard-of-record of three 1,000-yard
rushers in the same season.
Still, it is fun to dream. And who knows what might happen?
Kaepernick and Taua will likely already have their 1,000-yard season tucked
away going into the bowl game. Lippincott, who would be playing the last
game of his career, could be about 250 yards short of 1,000 going into the
bowl game.
Would it be that crazy for the Pack to give Lippincott 30-35 carries in the
bowl game -- the last game of his great Pack career? Taua and Kaepernick,
who would have the 2010 season to look forward to, might insist on it.
Lippincott, after all, is one of the greatest team leaders in school history
and a guy who demonstrated enormous heart and character to battle back from
a serious injury. If anyone deserved to have a game plan designed for him in
his final college game, it's Lippincott.
Three 1,000-yard rushers in the same season would give the Pack an
incredible amount of national attention. It would make the Pistol offense --
already the most copied offense in the nation -- the national spotlight it
deserves. Everybody and their pet hamster is throwing the ball all over the
field these days. And the Pack can certainly do that, too.
But not many teams can do both as well as the Pack. Running the ball well
takes a total commitment and sacrifice from all 11 players on the field.
It's a commitment and sacrifice not many teams, especially those that also
can throw the ball, are willing to make.
Navy has led the NCAA in rushing in five of the last six years. But that's
all they did. Nebraska, too, did little more than run while leading the
country in rushing 13 times from 1980-2001. Oklahoma ran most of the time
while leading the nation on the ground eight times from 1971-1987.
For the Pack and its revolutionary Pistol offense, which can throw the ball
with the best pass-happy offenses in the nation, to also lead the country in
rushing, well, it would be a special accomplishment to say the least.
It should be an interesting last six games of the season.
