With the COVID-19 pandemic putting the sports world into pause mode for what has been just more than a month, and projected to continue to last at least that long, now is the ideal time to right a wrong in college football.
It is time to retroactively update the record books for each school — and there should be more free time to finally do it.
Beginning with the 2002 season, the decision was made by college football teams that bowl games would be included among the individual and team stats.
Nothing wrong with that.
In fact, USC had been doing that for years in its own record books because the belief was that if it is a game that is counted on the all-time won-lost record, then it likewise should be included in the team and individual’s dossier as well.
But college football had taken on the same approach as the NFL or even Major League Baseball: postseason playoff numbers don’t count in the individual’s or team’s career.
Otherwise, instead of the universally recognized 714 career home runs in his career, Babe Ruth would have 729 because of the 15 he clouted in World Series games.
Plus, 1921 would have been his first season of reaching 60 home runs, not 1927. That is because instead of the 59 recorded in 1921, Ruth also went yard once in that year’s World Series.
Again, there is nothing wrong about college football opting to add bowl numbers.
What is unjust is it doesn’t include them retroactively for the players or teams prior to 2002.
It struck me how wrong that was when in 2005 during consensus All-American wide receiver Jeff Samardzija’s fantastic campaign, he was also advertised as tying Notre Dame’s all-time single-season receiving mark thanks to catching six passes for 59 yards in the 34-20 loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
So instead of the 71 catches he snared during the 11-game regular season, he now officially had 77 — thereby “tying” the single-season school record of 77 that Thom Gatewood established during the 1970 campaign 35 years earlier.
What was not mentioned was Gatewood caught 79 passes when you include the 24-11 Cotton Bowl victory over No. 1 Texas that same season. He reeled in 17- and 26-yard passes — the latter for a touchdown — in the first quarter that put the Fighting Irish ahead for good. On that score, he also suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him the remainder of the contest.
Still, the record books should reflect those two catches as well. That way his 79 would have remained the standard for one season (surpassed since then by Golden Tate and Michael Floyd).
Now, Samardzija did play 12 games compared to Gatewood’s 11, but that’s another story for another time. Furthermore, there are categories in the record book that reflect catches per game in a season — which would have given College Football Hall of Fame enshrinee Gatewood at 7.18 catches per game to Samardzija’s 6.58 figure.
This unfairness was reflected maybe even more during running back Josh Adams’ outstanding 2017 season.
When including Notre Dame’s 21-17 Citrus Bowl victory over LSU in which Adams rushed for a modest 44 yards on 15 carries, his final total was 1,430 yards on the ground.
Over and over and over again it was acknowledged that Adams’ total was the “second best” in school history, only seven yards behind Vagas Ferguson’s 1,437 in 1979 (Notre Dame opted not to play in a bowl game during that 7-4 campaign).
Here is what was not stated:
• In 1992 while finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting, Notre Dame senior running back Reggie Brooks romped for 1,343 yards rushing at 8.0 yards per clip during the 9-1-1 regular season.
Then in the 28-3 Cotton Bowl conquest of 12-0 Texas A&M, Brooks accumulated 115 more rushing yards.
That gave him 1,458 overall — surpassing both Adams and Ferguson. Yet it’s never mentioned.
• But wait, there is more!
In 1983, sophomore Allen Pinkett racked up 1,394 yards during the 11-game regular season. Then he added 111 more (with two touchdowns) in a 19-18 Liberty Bowl defeat of 9-2 Boston College, whose quarterback was the Heisman winner the next season, Doug Flutie.
Thus, when you add in the bowl numbers (as you should), then the four best single-season rushing marks for Notre Dame should be Pinkett with 1,515 (1983), Brooks next at 1,458 (1992), Ferguson’s 1,437 (1979) and Adams' 1,430 (2017).
This is not about undermining or mitigating Adams’ feat. It is about applying the data fairly, or not having one set of standards for one group of players and different ones for others. There still is some imbalance with the number of games played, but there again at least one can apply the “per game” averages data.
Furthermore, with three touchdowns in postseason action, Pinkett’s Notre Dame career record 53 touchdowns should actually be 56.
There are so many other layers to this as well on offense or defense:
• For example, during Notre Dame’s national title season in 1977, Jerome Heavens “officially” rushed for 994 yards. The same goes for another Jerome in 1991, or Jerome “The Bus” Bettis' 150-yard, three-touchdown output in the 39-28 Sugar Bowl victory over No. 3 Florida on Jan. 1, 1992.
What is not included is the 12th game when he amassed 101 rushing yards in the 38-10 rout of No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl, which now should officially be 1,095 rushing yards in the record books. Why can bowl games since 2002 be included and the ones prior to it not?
When the Fighting Irish archives list 1,000-yard rushing seasons for the program, Heavens is not included.
Why not? It’s easy to amend retroactively.
• Meanwhile, Heavens’ teammate, tight end and Walter Camp Award winner Ken MacAfee, is listed No. 2 all time at Notre Dame for most receiving yards by a Fighting Irish tight end with 1,759, behind Tyler Eifert’s 1,840.
What is not stated is that in three bowl games at Notre Dame, Eifert totaled 182 receiving yards that is included in the final career stats.
Meanwhile, MacAfee’s nine catches for 123 yards in his postseason games are excluded.
Otherwise, MacAfee’s 1,882 career receiving yards would be No. 1 on the all-time Fighting Irish tight end chart, with Eifert a close No. 2 at 1,840.
• Tony Rice’s 1,921 rushing yards are easily a career record at Notre Dame. However, when including bowl games — as they should be — that number should be more than 2,000 (2,049 to be exact).
• Likewise, 1975-78 linebacker Bob Golic should join Bob Crable (1978-81) in the 500-tackle club at Notre Dame.
The record book officially lists Crable with 521 and Golic with 479. But Golic recorded 17 as Defensive MVP in the aforementioned 1978 Cotton Bowl demolition of Texas — and surely totaled at least four more in the other two Notre Dame bowl victories in which he partook.
Yes, it will take some time to update all these numbers retroactively to include the bowl games Notre Dame has played since 1969 (plus the 1925 Rose Bowl).
But with the pandemic in full force, this provides the needed time to set the record(s) straight.
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