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What needs to be done to get the 2009 list to have more rushing plays? I would have to think the overall number would grow if there was a "home run" running game to keep defenses honest.

Harrison Smith had 2 of the top 3 longest runs, with the other coming from Tate. Yikes.

At least Weis openly recognizes that he will never have a championship level team with the kind of running game he has been responsible for so far. Let's hope Weis truly means it, and that Verducci can make it much better.

Both on the road.

Who, between, will probably have something like 6 first round draft picks. I'm not saying that we couldn't or shouldn't have played better but at least the numbers were in part due to the excellence of both units.

SC tap danced on Oregon's head at home, not to mention Ohio State and others.

I had less of a problem with struggling mightily against defenses of that caliber than I did with stepping on our own dicks against Pitt and (shudder) Syracuse.

We had one play longer than 20 against BC (32-yard pass to Floyd).

Our longest pass against USC was 11 yards. Our longest play, period, against the Trojans was a 16-yard run by Aldridge.

50 plays went for 20 or more yards this year.

For comparison...
2008: 50
2007: 27
2006: 51
2005: 59

Thank you, Michael Floyd and Golden Tate.

Before looking at the table, do you know who had our longest run on the year?

game down dist player play comp receiver yards turnover TD
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 69  TD
MICH 2 8 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 60  
UW 2 8 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 51  TD
MICH 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 48  TD
STAN 3 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 48  TD
UNC 2 9 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 47  
PITT 3 12 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 47  
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 41  
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp ALLEN 41  
SYR 4 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 40  
HAWAII 3 20 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 40  TD
SDSU 2 5 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 38  TD
PU 3 8 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 38  
PU 3 7 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 38  
SYR 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 36  TD
UW 4 13 SMITH rush   35  
SYR 2 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 35  TD
UW 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 33  
UNC 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 32  
UW 2 11 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 32  
BC 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 32  
PITT 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 31  
SYR 3 5 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 31  
MSU 3 8 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 30  
PU 4 7 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 30  TD
UNC 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 30  
HAWAII 4 1 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 29  
SDSU 3 2 CLAUSEN pass comp KAMARA 28  
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 28  
HAWAII 2 12 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 27  
MSU 3 11 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 26  TD
UNC 4 13 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 26 fum 
MSU 1 10 TATE rush   24  
PU 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 24  
STAN 3 5 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 24  
UNC 2 8 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 24  
HAWAII 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 24  
PU 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 23  
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp GRIMES 23  
STAN 4 8 SMITH rush   23  
SDSU 3 11 CLAUSEN pass comp FLOYD 22  TD
MSU 3 17 CLAUSEN pass comp TATE 22  
PU 2 2 ALLEN rush   21  
PU 2 10 ALLEN rush   21  
PU 2 10 ALLEN rush   21  
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp ALLEN 21  TD
UW 3 7 TATE rush   21  TD
PITT 2 25 CLAUSEN pass comp RUDOLPH 21  
STAN 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp ALLEN 20  
PITT 1 10 CLAUSEN pass comp KAMARA 20