Rennie Childs’ 100-Yard Performance a Rarity Since Joe Randle Left

If you want to make a strong case against Mike Yurcich (and I know many of you do), I’ll give you a good place to start. From 2005 to 2012, the first eight years of the Mike Gundy era, OSU had a 100-yard rusher in a game 70 times.

That’s a 100-yard rushing effort from one player about once every game and a half (some games had two guys get 100 yards). For every three games, two games in which it had a 100-yard rusher. That’s pretty good. In the Dana-Monken era, it had a 100-yard rusher 28 times in 39 games which is just insane.

Since Monken left in 2012, though? Just eight of them in 42 games (and two were in the same game) and now just four in the last 29 games after Rennie Childs did it on Saturday against Pitt.

Here’s the entire list:

• Rennie Childs (2016 — Pitt): 10 for 101 yards
• Chris Carson (2015 — UTSA): 17 for 104 yards
• Desmond Roland (2015 — Washington): 32 for 123 yards
• Tyreek Hill (2014 — KSU): 18 for 102 yards
• Desmond Roland (2013 — OU): 21 for 144 yards
• Desmond Roland (2013 — ISU): 26 for 219 yards
• Jeremy Smith (2013 — Mississippi State): 15 for 102 yards
• J.W. Walsh (2013 — Mississippi State): 13 for 125 yards

This happens for myriad reasons. There hasn’t really been a feature back like a Kendall Hunter or a Joe Randle to feed which gives you results like last year against Texas Tech where two players had over 55 yards but none had 100. But also the offensive line and overall run game hasn’t been all that good (obviously). OSU has never been over 4.5 yards per carry for a season under Yurcich. So the Childs game last week in which he barely gained 100 yards really stands out.

“I think today went very, very well,” Childs said last Saturday. “From the offensive line and for the wide receivers blocking on the outside and making plays. I’m very proud of our offense. Actually, I’m very proud of our whole team.”

A 100-yard rusher in a game used to be a formality. Now it’s a rarity. Which is why there is often so much angst among those who root for the orange and black. #MakeOSURunAgain