Hope for Denard's career rushing record

Submitted by StateStreetApostle on

Before we knew what surprises Hoke, Borges, et al. had on Saturday, there was discussion (read: lamentation) of Denard's chances for the rushing record by quarterbacks.  Now, with the 98 yards he could be as close as 207 to Pat White.  

HOWEVA...in that discussion, people claimed variously that he had 4129 yards or 4175.  The reason for this discrepancy was the 46 yards he accumulated last year in his matchup against Alex "Did You Know Graham Couch Is My Mom" Carder & WMU.  Some sites count them, and some do not.

We UM fans have always decided to count them (witness the case for Fitz' thousand-yard season).  As for the NCAA?

Yet another reason why Iowa has to somehow win Friday: gives him 3 games to get 69 ypg, as opposed to 104 ypg without the B1G championship.

BUT: the bulk of his carries on Saturday came from the running back position.  Would the record book make such a distinction?  The record IS "yards rushing by a quarterback"...but think of what wrinkles like the wildcat could do to record-keeping...

One would think that wouldn't matter, right?  Except that keepers of record books, as we know, love to pick them some nits...

tbeindit

November 18th, 2012 at 10:30 PM ^

One of the reporters tweeted about this on Saturday.  I believe it was kmeinke.  The NCAA is going to count Denard's rushing yards if he is still listed as a qb on the roster, which is was last Saturday.  Whether that remains, who knows, but I think the stats will count, the big factor is that it's only 2-3 more games

Lionsfan

November 18th, 2012 at 10:30 PM ^

His carries on Sat count. Someone from the Daily had that question, and asked the NCAA about it, and as long as Denard is listed as a QB, his stats count toward the QB rushing mark

Lionsfan

November 18th, 2012 at 10:36 PM ^

Ok so it wasn't the Daily, it was Rothstein, but here:

snarling wolverine

November 18th, 2012 at 11:00 PM ^

This would be cool and all, but the record probably wouldn't last long.  I'm just glad he got to have three straight 1,000-yard seasons.  I think Tyrone Wheatley is the last Michigan player to do that.

Gulogulo37

November 19th, 2012 at 8:20 AM ^

Agreed. Clearly, Denard is going to now go out there with his heart set on the rushing record. He's going to be an unstoppable beast doing all he can to rack up yards and move the team down the field. Therefore, he won't be focused at all on the team winning the game. The more yards Denard has, the less likely we are to win the game.

MGoManBall

November 18th, 2012 at 11:36 PM ^

If the team takes care of business against Ohio and whoever they play in a bowl game, the record will come. I'm not at all worried about it.

I'm more worried about Michigan winning this saturday so I can listen to all the Ohio fans around me act like the sky is falling for another year.

snoopblue

November 19th, 2012 at 2:37 AM ^

Iowa could win against Nebraska. Nebraska can sleepwalk in the first half of games. Burkhead still banged up, Martinez still inconsistent. A friday game throws everything off. Weisman seems healthy now. But god that defense is awful what am I saying...they probably won't win, but I guess you never know.

I still think Denard breaks the record if he stays healthy. Fitz now being out (get well soon man!) will give him more opportunities and I'm sure they'll add in more plays and schemes during bowl practices to make sure Denard makes history. 

BEAT OHIO

Dallas Walmart…

November 19th, 2012 at 10:25 AM ^

in the game against MSU last year?  It seems a little ridiculous to think they would go back and check each play to see where he lined up and determine whether his stats for that play came as a "QB"

LSAClassOf2000

November 19th, 2012 at 11:44 AM ^

One of the interesting stats that is part of all this would be the fact that Denard Robinson has averaged 90.9 yards rushing per game for his career at Michigan and an average of 116 rushing yards per game this year despite missing time due to injury. I find it remarkable really that, to get to the NCAA quarterback rushing record, it would still entail a slightly below average performance in the remaining games compared to this years numbers, and only a slightly above average performance based on his career averages. If anyone is interested, to cover the necessary 208 yards, if Denard kept the pace of his career average of 6.2 YPC, that would be 34 carries, or based on this year's average of 7.3 YPC, 29 carries. So, basically, an estimated 30 or so carries for some decent yardage would be potentially sufficient.