The Quest for 2 1,000 Yard Rushers at NC State

After practice yesterday, NC State head coach Dave Doeren said that his ultimate goal would be to give Senior Shadrach Thornton and Junior Matt Dayes enough carries for the both of them to cross the 1,000 yard barrier.

“The idea would be able to share the ball and still have a 1,000 yard rusher.  We’d love for those two guys to have 1,000 yards at the end of the year,” said Doeren. “They have to stay healthy to do that first of all.  If they do, we have to get them the amount of touches to make that happen.” (PI)

To put this in perspective, only 64 Division I FBS teams have ever had two players rush for over 1,000 yards in the same season.  The only team to accomplish the remarkable feat last year was Georgia Southern (Matt Breida – 1,485 & Kevin Ellison – 1,096).

Doeren knows exactly what it looks like to have two running backs rush for 1,000 yards in a season.  In 2010, while Doeren was the Defensive Coordinator for the Wisconsin Badgers, James White (1,052) and John Clay (1,012) both rushed for 1,000 yards.  They were 4 yards away from having three 1,000 yard rushers that year, with Montee Ball also rushing for 996 yards.  Here is a breakdown of the carry distribution at Wisconsin that year:

John Clay – 187 carries
Montee Ball – 163 carries
James White – 156 carries

Georgia Tech was the last ACC team to have two 1,000 yard rushers in a single season back in 2009, when Jonathan Dwyer (1,395) and James Nesbitt (1,037) accomplished the feat.

Last season, Shadrach Thornton rushed the ball 164 times, and Matt Dayes rushed for 104 times.  Both of these Wolfpack running backs have the talent and capability to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.  The question is whether or not each of them get the carries necessary.  T.A. McClendon is the last Wolfpack running back to rush for 1,000 yards back in 2002, and Doeren hopes to fill the 13-year void with two 1,000 yard rushers.