Fun Stats of the Day

The following is a comparison between Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams, Adrian Peterson and Darren McFadden.

Career Numbers:

Herschel Walker ……….. 5596yds-1083-57tds (36 games) 155.4 YPG / 5.17 YPC
Ron Dayne ……………... 7125yds-1220-71tds (47 games) 151.6 YPG / 5.84 YPC
Ricky Williams ………… 6592yds-1064-75tds (49 games) 134.5 YPG / 6.19 YPC
Adrian Peterson ………... 4045yds-747-41tds (31 games) 130.5 YPG / 5.41 YPG
Darren McFadden …...…. 4484yds-763-40tds (38 games) 118.0 YPG / 5.88 YPC
Bo Jackson …………..…. 4714yds-735-48tds (41 games) 114.9 YPG / 6.41 YPC

Herschel Walker, Darren McFadden, Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams and Adrian Peterson had more career carries than Bo Jackson but when you focus on quality and not quantity, it paints a whole new picture. Ricky Williams had a career average of 6.19 yards per carry. McFadden averaged 5.88 yards per carry, better than Adrian Peterson’s 5.41 rushing average and Herschel Walker’s 5.17 average per carry. Ron Dayne was right behind McFadden with 5.84 yards per carry. Bo Jackson tops all four with a career average per carry of 6.41 yards. Ricky Williams possessed the best TD ratio with 1 every 14.2 carries. Bo Jackson scored a rushing touchdown every 15.3 carries, better than Dayne’s 17.2, Peterson’s 18.2, Walker’s 19.0 and McFadden’s 19.1.

Top 11 Career Games:

Dayne ……… 2798yds-355-28tds / 254.4 YPG / 7.9 YPC / 12.6 att per TD
Williams …… 2763yds-364-36tds / 251.2 YPG / 7.6 YPC / 10.1 att per TD
Walker …….. 2468yds-398-25tds / 224.4 YPG / 6.2 avg / 15.9 att per TD
Peterson …… 2231yds-321-21tds / 202.8 YPG / 6.9 avg / 15.3 att per TD
McFadden …. 2202yds-307-19tds / 200.2 YPG / 7.17 avg / 16.2 att per TD
Jackson …..... 2175yds-301-20tds / 197.7 YPG / 7.22 avg / 15.0 att per TD

Once again, Walker, Peterson, Dayne, Williams and McFadden lead in total yards with more carries than Jackson. In terms of quality, Ron Dayne had the highest yards per carry with 7.9 yards per rush and Ricky Williams possessed the best TD ratio of 1 evert 10.1 attempts.

Career Games of 20 carries or more:

Jackson ….… 2193yds-325-19tds / 182.7 YPG / 6.74 avg / 17.1 att per TD
Williams …... 4857yds-779-55tds / 179.9 YPG / 6.23 avg / 14.2 att per TD
Dayne ……... 6330yds-1075-67tds / 175.8 YPG / 5.89 avg / 16.0 att per TD
Walker …….. 5463yds-1052-57tds / 165.5 YPG /5.19 avg / 18.4 att per TD
McFadden …. 3261yds-552-24tds / 155.3 YPG / 5.90 avg / 23.0 att per TD
Peterson …… 3830yds-700-39tds / 147.3 YPG / 5.47 avg / 17.9 att per TD

Walker had 33 games of at least 20 carries, Peterson had 26 and McFadden had 21 games, compared to Bo Jackson’s 12 games. Like Walker, Ron Dayne was a workhorse with 36 career games and Ricky Williams had 27 games. Bo averaged 182.7 yards per game compared to Williams’ 179.9, Dayne’s 175.8, Walker's 165.5, McFadden’s 155.3 average and Peterson’s 147.3 yards. Bo Jackson had the better average per carry and scored more frequently except for Ron Dayne and Ricky Williams. Jackson had fewer 20-carry games because he played in the wishbone offense in 3 of his 4 seasons.

Conference Games:

Walker …….. 168.9 yds per game / 5.23 avg / 20.0 att per TD
Dayne ……… 145.4 yds per game / 5.32 avg / 20.8 att per TD
McFadden …. 128.6 yds per game / 5.63 avg / 23.8 att per TD
Williams …… 136.1 yds per game / 5.93 avg / 18.4 att per TD
Jackson …..... 113.2 yds per game / 6.27 avg / 17.2 att per TD
Peterson …… 112.1 yds per game / 5.81 avg / 14.8 att per TD

Because of more attempts, Herschel Walker, Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams and Darren McFadden had a better average in yards per game than Bo Jackson and Adrian Peterson. In terms of quality, Bo Jackson had a higher average per carry than the other five backs but Adrian Peterson had the best TD ratio against conference opponents.

Number of games averaging 5 or more yards per carry:

Jackson ……. 29 of 41 (70.7%)
Williams …… 32 of 49 (65.3%)
McFadden …. 24 of 38 (63.2%)
Dayne ……… 28 of 47 (59.6%)
Peterson …… 17 of 31 (54.8%)
Walker …….. 16 of 36 (44.4%)

Number of games averaging 6 or more yards per carry:

Jackson ……. 21 of 41 (51.2%)
McFadden …. 18 of 38 (47.4%)
Williams …… 22 of 49 (44.9%)
Peterson …… 13 of 31 (41.9%)
Dayne ……... 18 of 47 (38.3%)
Walker …….. 11 of 36 (30.5%)

Number of games averaging 7 or more yards per carry:

McFadden …. 12 of 38 (31.6%)
Williams …… 14 of 49 (28.6%)
Dayne ……… 12 of 47 (25.5%)
Jackson ……. 10 of 41 (24.4%)
Peterson …… 6 of 31 (19.3%)
Walker …….. 3 of 36 (8.3%)

Games against Opponents with winning record:

During Adrian Peterson’s career, he faced a strength of schedule of .612. Bo Jackson faced a strength of schedule of .601. Darren McFadden faced a strength of schedule of .566, Ricky Williams faced a .525 and Ron Dayne was at .494. Herschel Walker had the lowest level of competition att at .485. Of Bo Jackson’s 41 games, 29 of his opponents had a winning record (70.7 pct). Peterson’s competition came from 19 teams of 31 with a winning record (61.3 pct). McFadden faced 21 of 38 (55.3 pct), Williams faced 25 of 49 (51.0 pct) and Ron Dayne faced as winning opponent in 20 of 47 games (42.5%). Herschel Walker faced only 15 of 36 (41.7 pct).

Herschel Walker …… 2253yds-470-21tds / 150.2 YPG / 4.79 YPC / 22.4 ATD
Darren McFadden ….. 2949yds-492-21tds / 140.4 YPG / 5.99 YPC / 23.4 ATD
Ron Dayne …………. 2414yds-468-18tds / 120.7 YPG / 5.16 YPC / 26.0 ATD
Adrian Peterson ……. 2285yds-452-23tds / 120.3 YPG / 5.06 YPC / 19.7 ATD
Ricky Williams ……. 2952yds-540-24tds / 118.1 YPG / 5.47 YPC / 22.5 ATD
Bo Jackson …………. 3227yds-527-31tds / 111.3 YPG / 6.12 YPC / 17.0 ATD

Herschel Walker had the best average in yards per game but Bo Jackson finished with the best yards per carry and TD ratio against the more difficult competition.

Games against Opponents with win percentage of .750 or better:

Ron Dayne (12) …………. 1394yds-282-11tds / 116.2 YPG / 4.94 YPC / 25.6 ATD
Darren McFadden (11) …. 1274yds-218-12tds / 115.8 YPG / 5.84 YPC / 18.2 ATD
Bo Jackson (13) ………… 1470yds-254-11tds / 113.1 YPG / 5.78 YPC / 23.1 ATD
Herschel Walker (6) …..…. 645yds-159-7tds / 107.5 YPG / 4.06 YPC / 22.7 ATD
Ricky Williams (11) …….. 1044yds-216-7tds / 94.9 YPG / 4.83 YPC / 30.9 ATD
Adrian Peterson (10) ……. 916yds-218-8tds / 91.6 YPG / 4.20 YPC / 27.2 ATD

Ron Dayne had the highest yards per game with 116.2 against opponents with a win percentage of at least .750. Darren McFadden had the best yards per carry and TD ratio. Bo Jackson was close behind McFadden in this category. According to the University of Texas official athletic website, Ricky Williams was a fullback during his first 2 seasons and a halfback during his final 2 years. As a fullback, Williams averaged 91.2 YPG and 183.5 YPG as a halfback.

Bowl stats are included for all the above backs.