Looking Back at Barry Sanders’ 1988 Season: Setting a New NCAA Touchdown Record

One win (if we’re calling it that?) on the content side of things during this pandemic has been that I’ve been diving into the history books more than I normally would. There’s more time, and it’s more necessary if we’re going to keep churning out interesting things.

One thing I’ve been wanting to do is walk back through all of Barry Sanders’ games from the 1988 season and write about them individually. That’s what this series is about. Old articles, quotes, stats and tidbits you may have missed or didn’t know about. 

Game 1 vs. Miami (Ohio)
Game 2 vs. Texas A&M
Game 3 vs. Tulsa
Game 4 at Coloado
Game 5 at Nebraska
Game 6 vs. Mizzou
Game 7 at Kansas State
Game 8 vs. OU

Game 9: OSU 63 | Kansas 24 (Nov. 12, 1988)

How do you follow up a 215-yard performance in one of the all-time Bedlams? How about putting up 37 for 312 on KU in Stillwater the following week. Barry scored five more TDs to push his total to 31 for the season, which was the new NCAA record (and which he would add to significantly over the next several games). Again, this was his ninth game of the year.

Sanders also became Oklahoma State’s record holder for rushing yards in a season in this game as he surpassed the 2,000-yard mark (nine games in!). If Barry had benched himself for the remainder of the season after this game, he would still hold the single-season TD mark by a running back at OSU, and he would be second only to Chuba Hubbard in total rushing yards in a single season.

Here’s how The Oklahoman opened its coverage on Sunday following the game.

This game was to be the beginning of an all-out push for the Heisman Trophy, in the name of Barry Sanders. A demonstration of how to win games and influence voters, if you will. But with the absence of anything resembling a defense, everybody on the offensive side of the football looked like an All-American. At least.

Some of the quotes from after this game made me laugh out loud. Poor Kansas wasn’t much better then than it is now. It went 1-9 in 1987 and 1-10 in 1988. Stopping the greatest college football player of all time? It wasn’t going to happen.

“It becomes a broken record at this point,” said Mike Gundy when reflecting on Barry’s season a few years ago. “College players could not grasp him and get him down.”

“They just wore down our defensive line,” said KU coach Glen Mason. “I found out the best way to defend Barry Sanders was having them on their bench. ”

Pat Jones sounded downright presidential.

“I think people here witnessed today the finest collegiate football player in the country,” said Jones after the game. “What Barry did is something the whole squad can share in.

Here’s more from The Oklahoman on a day when it’s easy to envision Barry nabbing 400 (or more?) yards at Lewis Field.

On a day when people expected greatness, Barry Sanders delivered greatness. Sanders’ table-setting was a head-to-head confrontation with a horrendous rushing defense. He pigged out like King Henry VIII.

“Some guy in the stands who had on a big cowboy hat kept yelling at me and wanted to bet $100 that Sanders would get 400 yards,” added Mason. “I should have bet him.”

Barry — even in the face of what was quickly becoming one of the great Heisman runs in the history of the sports — seemed undeterred by it all. Unbothered by the lights, cameras and national attention that was beginning to descend

“I guess maybe it’ll hit me 20 years down the road, but it’s no big deal to me right now,” he said after the game.

“People are saying he doesn’t want to win the Heisman,” said Gundy after the game in 1988. “That’s not true. He just doesn’t want all the hype that goes with it.”

Jones, who joked that if Barry faced his own defense every game would be like this one, maybe summed it up best. Because when it comes to Barry, oftentimes it’s most impactful for his work to do the talking. No pattern of words or turn of phrase could ever sum up his greatness in the same way his greatness could sum up his greatness.

Jones, after his ninth time to watch this mayhem that year, said this about his superduperstar tailback. Short, but true: “He’s a marvel to watch.”