Nov. 4, 2002
By Rick Brewer
West Virginia's Avon Cobourne recently joined a unique group of college football players.
Cobourne pushed his season rushing total to 1,002 yards, becoming only the fifth Division I-A player in history to post four 1,000-yard seasons.
Even Carolina, which has produced so many 1,000-yard backs in the past, has had only one player accomplish that feat. Amos Lawrence had over 1,000 yards on the ground in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980.
The other players with four 1,000-yard seasons are Tony Dorsett of Pittsburgh from 1973 to 76, New Mexico State's Denvis Manns (1995-98) and Wisconsin's Ron Dayne (1996-99).
This number may well increase in the future. The factors that have limited the achievement in the past are still part of the game. But, there are reasons to believe it will become an easier accomplishment in upcoming years.
More former players might have already hit 1,000 yards four times except they never had the opportunity. The ineligibility of freshmen prevented that. One-platoon football also made it a virtual impossibility.
Gaining 1,000 yards four straight years means extensive playing time for a freshman. Not all first-year players get that opportunity.
Most coaches prefer to bring freshmen along slowly to ease their adjustment to college football. Tar Heel Coach Bill Dooley did not have that luxury with Lawrence.
Lawrence came to Carolina as one of the nation,s most acclaimed high school backs in 1977. Mike Voight had completed his eligibility the previous fall and Dooley needed a standout tailback for his I-formation offense.
The Carolina coach still was reluctant to put his freshman on the field immediately. He decided to work him into the lineup gradually and give him an opportunity to be successful early.
Lawrence was therefore held out of the season opener at Kentucky. The Wildcats featured a veteran defense that had shut down Carolina in the 1976 Peach Bowl.
He had just five carries for 25 yards the second week against Richmond. Then came his first big day -- 10 carries for 101 yards and a 53-yard touchdown run at Northwestern. He would rush for over 100 yards five more times that year, including 216 in his first start at N.C. State and an NCAA-freshman record of 286 at Virginia.
He finished the year with 1,211 yards in 10 games and followed with 1,043 in 1978, 1,019 in 1979 and 1,118 in 1980.
A philosophical change by most coaches has also limited a player's chances for four 1,000-yard seasons. For years a coaching staff would select a starting running back and play him most of the time. Dooley did that with Don McCauley. The same was true for players like Dorsett, Ohio State,s Archie Griffin, Herschel Walker at Georgia, Earl Campbell of Texas and all of Southern California,s star tailbacks.
Now many coaches rotate backs to keep a fresh player on the field. Running backs take a great deal of pounding, both in games and on the practice field. While cutting down playing time has kept backs from posting higher rushing totals on a regular basis, it has probably also prevented some injuries.
Players like McCauley and Voight grew up in I-formation attacks. They developed amazing durability, seeming to get stronger as games progressed. It was opposing defenses that wore out, not the tailbacks. Having offensive lines that worked just as much, if not more, on ground games than passing attacks was a great help. Tailbacks also ran behind fullbacks who blocked as well as some linemen.
The 5-10, 179-pound Lawrence did not have the size of McCauley or Voight. He had the power to run inside when needed, but was at his best in the open field. While some backs liked to run over defenders, Lawrence simply avoided them with his quickness and elusiveness. He had the ability to cut on a blade of grass while running full speed. Would-be-tacklers looked like kids chasing fireflies on a summer night.
The inability of opponents to get clear shots at him helped Lawrence avoid serious injuries. He had the normal bruises of any tailback and sometimes wasn,t 100 percent on Saturdays, but he never missed a game after being held out of that 1977 opener.
Unlike a decade ago, backs sometimes don't stay in school a full four years, leaving early to begin professional careers. That eliminates other potential 1,000-yard backs.
A greater reliance on the passing game recently has been perhaps the biggest obstacle for runners gaining 1,000 yards four times. It's now not unusual for teams to run just a combined 50 times or less in a game. An indication of the way throwing has been so emphasized can be seen in post-season awards.
Running backs won the Heisman Trophy 11 straight years from 1973 to 1983. Not a single running back finished in the top 10 in Heisman voting last fall.
Over the last 10 seasons runners have finished among the top four in each year,s Heisman balloting just 28 percent of the time. In the previous 10 seasons that figure had been 60 percent.
However, football is historically a game of cycles. Defensive coordinators will find ways to slow down passing attacks. A group of superb runners will enter college at the same time and their teams will run the ball with great success. Opponents will take note and copy those offenses just as so many have modeled their attacks after others, passing games.
There are not a lot of original ideas in football. Most changes come from plagiarism.
A decision by the NCAA to allow teams a 12th regular-season game in some years will make it easier for backs to gain 1,000 yards.
In addition, the NCAA Statistical Service has decided that bowl game performances will be included in a player's final statistics. That has not been the case in the past. Players in some leagues are already getting an extra game because of conference playoffs. Runner on top teams could possibly have 14 games to gain 1,000 yards in some years.
Eventually a 1,500-yard season may be the standard for star runners.
Still, it will take exceptional players to put together four 1,000-yard seasons. Just five accomplishing that in over a century is an indication of that.
Rick Brewer is in his fourth decade with the University of North Carolina athletic department and brings a unique historical perspective to TarHeelBlue.com. A native of North Carolina, Brewer served as UNC's Sports Information Director from 1975 until his retirement from full-time work in 2000. Email Rick Brewer at rbrewer@uncaa.unc.edu.
