Rockne's Roundtable

Lou, did Al Hunter get any touches as a freshman? Aside from kickoff he took back in the Sugar Bowl.

topgome,

Canuck118 has it correct. Alphonse made his first real splash in the fifth game when he scored two TDs in a 62-3 victory at Army. The next week in the crucial 23-14 win that ended USC's 23-game unbeaten streak, he was one of nine players who carried the ball for Notre Dame. Different era.

He was the first 1,000-yard rusher in a season at ND (1976), but he's always remembered most for that kickoff return. He also had four carries for 26 yards in that Sugar Bowl while playing behind Eric Penick and Art Best.

I know decades come and go with different offensive philosophies. Single wing, I-formation, veer, option, etc. all had their moments. My question is, if modern day running back effectiveness is influenced by whether the running back sets up behind the QB or in front of the QB. Also if the ball is handed off or pitched. George Atkinson's two fumbles in the spring game had nothing to do with a defensive play, but resulted from pitches he did not secure. Risk - reward?

Risksorter,

It's a testament to how many great freshmen running backs there have been at ND when Vagas Ferguson didn't quite make our top 5, even though he came on well late that season. Here's what happened:

After his sensational freshman year in 1975, Heaven suffered a season-ending knee injury in the third game of 1976 (at Northwestern). ND then used a number of fullbacks while heavily relying on tailback Al Hunter to carry the load — and he became the school's first 1,000-yard rusher in a season that year.

But after a 23-14 upset loss at Georgia Tech dropped the record to 6-2, Devine decided to work freshman backup tailback Ferguson at fullback for the Alabama game the following week. It was a surprise move, but worked superbly, with Ferguson's 24 carries netting 107 yards, highlighted by a 17-yard score that gave ND a 21-7 halftime lead. Alabama controlled most of the second half in its 21-18 lead, and Jim Browner (who also started at fullback the previous year) made a late interception in the end zone when the Alabama QB missed seeing a wide open receiver in the flat that would have been an easy score.

It was in 1977 that Heavens nearly had his 1,000-yard season — although my argument is he did. That year, Heavens lined up fullback and Ferguson at tailback, but Ferguson was injured in the 20-13 loss at Ole Miss in the second game and was sidelined for about five weeks. Ferguson then moved to tailback, while Dave Mitchell and Terry Eurick worked at fullback.

In the finale at Miami, Heavens eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing, but then late in the game was thrown for a six- or seven-yard loss to leave him at 994. What is totally unfair is in the Cotton Bowl victory over No. 1 Texas, Heavens rushed for 101 yards, giving him 1,095 for the year. But bowl stats were not included back then, and aren't retroactively either.

Conversely, since I believe 2002, the NCAA included bowl stats into regular season stats. So not only do teams play 12 regular season games instead of 11 like in Heavens' time, but the bowl games are also included now. I strongly believe if you include bowl games now, you should retroactively be able to go back to previous bowls and include them as well, thereby making Heavens a 1,000-yard rusher for the 1977 national champs.

If I may, I think you may have confused Heavens' injury with Phil Carter's as to "never being the same". In the 1980 Michigan State game (26-21 Notre Dame win), the sophomore Carter eclipsed Ferguson's single game rushing record of 255 (at Georgia Tech in 1978) — but late in the contest he too was thrown for a loss that put him back at 254, one shy of Ferguson's standard. On that same play, he suffered some damage to his leg and sat for about five weeks while Jim Stone excelled in his place. When he came back, Carter was still productive and a very good major college back, but it didn't seem he had quite the same explosiveness.