In 2011, Melvin Gordon gained just 98 rushing yards as a Wisconsin freshman. The young man needed to do some growing.
We can all say he did. Melvin Gordon not only turned in the best season of any Wisconsin running back in 2014; he turned in what one could reasonably argue is the best season among ANY player who didn’t win the Heisman Trophy.
Yes, this is a legitimate debate. It’s not as though there aren’t other amazing seasons which didn’t win the Heisman. Vince Young of Texas in 2005 would rate as one example. John Elway of Stanford throwing for over 3,200 yards in 1982, when college football was very clearly a running back-dominated game (much as it is a quarterback-dominated game today). Yet, Gordon’s 2014 season certainly deserves to be at the forefront of the conversation when we think about elite non-Heisman-winning seasons.
Gordon rushed for 140 yards and 8.8 yards per carry against LSU in the season opener. He rushed for 250 or more yards four times, including in the 2015 Outback Bowl against Auburn. Yeah, that bowl performance wasn’t part of the Heisman evaluation process, but it remains part of his 2014 season and one of the greatest bowl performances by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
The crown jewel of Gordon’s 2014 season: His 408-yard rushing performance against Nebraska. Gordon averaged over 16 yards per carry on 25 totes. He scored four touchdowns. If one was to come up with the best single-game performance by a college football running back in 150 years of this sport’s long and storied history, that game has to be on the short list: top five at worst, very likely the top three. Melvin Gordon did that, not anyone else.
The final totals: In 2014, Melvin Gordon rushed for 2,587 yards and accounted for 2,740 yards from scrimmage. Gordon averaged 7.5 yards per carry for the ENTIRE SEASON, on 343 carries. He rushed for 29 touchdowns and scored 32. Marcus Mariota of Oregon beat him out, a likely result of Oregon thrashing Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship Game and Wisconsin getting its doors blown off in the “Gary Andersen foot out the door” game, the 59-0 blowout loss to Ohio State which certainly influenced a lot of Heisman voters. One game, one weekend, overshadowed a full season of remarkable work.
The best non-Heisman-winning season in college football history COULD belong to other individuals, but Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon has as legitimate a claim as anyone to that particular distinction.