Poll: Best Ever BYU Running Back

Time to vote for the Best Ever BYU Running Back to join our BYU All-Time Team.



Voting closes on Sunday. Only one makes the cut, so you only get one vote.



You can view the nominations and previous debate in the previous thread:



http://cougarcorner.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This sums it up nicely for me:



http://smu.edu/doakwalker/images/2001-luke-staley.jpg" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

snoscythe wrote:
This sums it up nicely for me:



http://smu.edu/doakwalker/images/2001-luke-staley.jpg" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

Only cougar to win the award.

I'm torn, man. One part tells me Staley AND then the other tells me Unga.



Then I get thinking... Staley left early for the NFL.



THEN



I realize Unga was gone a year early too!



THEN



I go to records THEN I go to awards, etc...



Life is good as a Cougar!

I guess the bad boys did not make the list - would not win any way



Galloping Greek - Chris Farousopholis sp

Reno Mahe - can't even out run the law with free gas



I went with Staley even though he left early. With his injury, he probably was toast anyway. What a great Junior year until that injury late in the miss St game rescheduled due to 9/11 terrorist attacks. And those dang cowbells in the stadium. At least we won the game and clearly things were never the same after Staley went down.



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I have to go with the all time rusher Unga for a few reasons. He had the speed (NFL timed between 4.5 and 4.7), the size 244, and the moves. I loved Staley but don't ever remember him running over DB's and LB's. Luke was a little faster than Harvey (times between 4.42 and 4.6) but he was not a big inside runner. If he got the corner he would go and racing to the corner from inside the 10 was almost a guarantee TD but Unga was just as productive. I would take either of them. ;)



I will say that CB is a very close third in my book. What Curtis Brown did to Oregon was a treat and showed that "JStew" was not the best RB on the field that day.

Unga wasn't "just as productive" as Staley. The only think Unga has over Staley is not having to share the load. Staley was the feature back only one season. Unga was for three years.



Both were very productive as a whole, but on a per touch basis, no one is even close to Staley in the RB category.



Staley averaged a full yard more per carry and per reception. He scored a touchdown every 10.5 times he touched the football. Unga's rate is only one per 18.1 TDs (72% less than Staley's).



Did Staley benefit from a magical year with a magical QB in a magical offense that caught every opponent off guard? Probably. But no one was better than Staley. He was a threat to score every time he touched the ball his entire career. Unga wasn't.



There isn't a wrong answer, but there certainly is a better one.

SpiffCoug wrote:
Unga wasn't "just as productive" as Staley. The only think Unga has over Staley is not having to share the load. Staley was the feature back only one season. Unga was for three years.



Both were very productive as a whole, but on a per touch basis, no one is even close to Staley in the RB category.



Staley averaged a full yard more per carry and per reception. He scored a touchdown every 10.5 times he touched the football. Unga's rate is only one per 18.1 TDs (72% less than Staley's).



Did Staley benefit from a magical year with a magical QB in a magical offense that caught every opponent off guard? Probably. But no one was better than Staley. He was a threat to score every time he touched the ball his entire career. Unga wasn't.



There isn't a wrong answer, but there certainly is a better one.

This argument can go both ways. Unga was fantastic from the very beginning till the very end.



Staley was a stud the second he touched the ball. Would Staley be just as productive in a pro style offense? I doubt it. Like Unga wouldn't be as productive in the option offense.



Both were great and too bad we can't pick two backs in this category.



I miss them both! Very much!

Staley was fantastic from the very beginning as well. He just didn't carry the load. It's actually amazing he didn't touch the ball more than he did the first two years.



As a freshman Staley, averaged 4.7 yards per carry and a TD every 9.2 carries. He averaged 13 yards per reception and a TD every 8.7 catches. His freshman cohort (Tahi) averaged 3.7 yards per rush and 7.2 yards per catch and scored just 4 TDs to Staley's 13. It's astounding to me Fahu touched the ball as much as he did.



As a freshman, Unga averaged 5.0 yards per rush and 14.9 yards per catch, but he scored just four more TDs on 170 more touches than Staley.



Staley was a scoring machine from the minute he stepped on the field. BYU has never had a player score at his kind of pace. He simply had a nose for the endzone that was unmatched. He was unstoppable by opponents only by injuries.

I might be showing my age but I'm supprised no one has mentioned Bill Ring. He was great in the late 70's at the Y and then at San Francisco.



Then I'm also supprised no one has mentioned Todd Christensen another great running back from the Y. Even though his NFL fame came at Tight End and he has become a pompus a** as a sports writer and broadcaster.



It shouldn't be only about numbers of yards and number of touchdowns. A lot of these other guys were key to the overall success of the team when they played just as much as Staley or Unga



Go Cougs!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY

Todd Christensen I think we put in the fullback category.



Staley was vital to the team's success, I'd even argue much more so than Unga. BYU was killed in their final two games in 2001 when Staley went down. (I am still convinced we beat Hawaii if he plays). BYU beat Oklahoma without Unga. There's no way a 1999-2001 BYU would have beat an Oklahoma without Staley. Staley was the best player in the program, same can't be said of Unga.

KYCoug wrote:
I might be showing my age but I'm supprised no one has mentioned Bill Ring. He was great in the late 70's at the Y and then at San Francisco.



Then I'm also supprised no one has mentioned Todd Christensen another great running back from the Y. Even though his NFL fame came at Tight End and he has become a pompus a** as a sports writer and broadcaster.



It shouldn't be only about numbers of yards and number of touchdowns. A lot of these other guys were key to the overall success of the team when they played just as much as Staley or Unga



Go Cougs!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY

iirc - Bill Ring was also a fullback at BYU like Todd. But I am not sure. He played for the 49ers in the glory days and thus probably has a super bowl ring. TC probably got one too with the Raiders. Staley basically had no NFL career becUse he never fully recovered from that injury. Staley, and Robbie Bosco, are both players that we will never know if they had NFL greatness in them due to college injury. If Bosco had not played injured all of 1985 at BYU, we might have a pair of national championships. He could not throw deep un 1985.



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SpiffCoug wrote:
Todd Christensen I think we put in the fullback category.



Staley was vital to the team's success, I'd even argue much more so than Unga. BYU was killed in their final two games in 2001 when Staley went down. (I am still convinced we beat Hawaii if he plays). BYU beat Oklahoma without Unga. There's no way a 1999-2001 BYU would have beat an Oklahoma without Staley. Staley was the best player in the program, same can't be said of Unga.

Amen - that's why Staley gets my vote.

Maybe I'm old school but Bill Ring was a Tail Back and Todd Christensen was a Full Back, that's how they were listed on the official BYU site. They were both Running Backs. If you're going to have a separate Full Back category then you should have the other category for Tail Back or Half Back. Not that it matters. Both were on the 1977 team and Bill was on the 1978 team. I was there then and I thought that team was the first really great team we had going 10-3 that year. We still didn't get any respect at that time and were not ranked but we did play in the Holiday Bowl. I guess neither runner put up monster numbers like Unga or Staley but they were great players on great Y teams who went on to have decent Pro careers and I just wanted to bring their memory up...least we forget!!!



Go Cougs!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY