A year ago, Rivals.com looked at how schools and conferences produced players in certain offensive benchmarks – 1,000-yard rushers, 3,000-yard passers and 1,000-yard receivers – in the BCS era.
Zac Robinson anchors a rare offense at Oklahoma State - one that returns a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard receiver and 1,000-yard rusher.
What do these individual milestones mean for a program or a conference? For one, it can back up what we already knew about the Big 12 last season. The conference certainly was an offense-first league. Of the 25 quarterbacks who passed for 3,000 yards, seven were in the Big 12. The league produced nine 1,000-yard receivers, and no other conference had more than six.
The numbers also say the ACC had a pedestrian 2008 on a national scale. The conference had no 3,000-yard passers, one 1,000-yard receiver and three 1,000-yard rushers. Then again, hitting those numbers might mean nothing at all. National champion Florida and undefeated Utah didn't have any players reach those milestones. And based solely on these numbers, the SEC was nearly as unimpressive as the ACC: four 1,000-yard rushers, no 1,000-yard receivers and a 3,000-yard passer.
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David Fox
Rivals.com College Football Staff Writer