Woodrow Dantzler By The Numbers

Dantzler Had 4 Straight 100-Yard Rushing, 300-Yard Total Offense Games After his 374-yard total offense performance against Virginia, many members of the media proclaimed Woodrow Dantzler a 2000 Heisman candidate. The interest in Dantzler grew after his 134-yard rushing, 174-yard passing performance in the win at Duke and it has continued with his 103-yard rushing, 220-yard passing game against NC State.

Dantzler four consecutive games of at least 100 yards rushing and at least 300 yards of total offense, a first in Clemson history. We are yet to find any quarterback nationally who has done it. The streak stopped against Maryland when he “only” had 87 yards rushing and 186 passing for 273 yards of total offense.

The junior from Orangeburg, SC certainly has some impressive and unusual numbers , data that is in line with those of a Heisman Trophy candidate. On October 8 Dantzler was ranked as the number-one candidate for the award by Heismanwatch.com. Clemson has had just one player rank in the final top 10 of the Heisman Trophy voting. That was Steve Fuller, who finished tied for sixth in the voting with fellow ACC player Ted Brown in 1978. The only Clemson player to win a National Award is Terry Kinard, who was named National Defensive Player of the Year by CBS and Chevrolet in 1982.

Dantzler was named National Player of the Week by CNNSI.com from his performance at Virginia. That internet site picks one player, regardless of position for the entire country. Dantzler had 220 yards rushing, an ACC record for a quarterback, and 154 yards passing in the victory at Virginia.

Dantzler is a prime reason Clemson ranks second in the nation in total offense, sixth in scoring, fifth in rushing and 15th in passing efficiency.

Dantzler Challenging for first 2000-1000 SeasonNow Ranked 9th in Passing, 11th in Rushing Heisman Trophy voters are usually attracted to an unusual and extraordinary statistical accomplishment. Clemson quarterback Woodrow Dantzler has a realistic chance of doing something that no other Division I quarterback in history has accomplished. Prior to the season Clemson Head Coach Tommy Bowden told members of the media that Dantzler had a chance to become the first quarterback in NCAA history to record at least 1000 yards rushing and 2000 yards passing in the same season.

Ten different quarterbacks on 11 occasions have had at least 1000 of each in the same season, but none of the 1000-yard rushers has reached 2000 yards passing. The closest to reaching both levels is Brian Mitchell, who had 1311 rushing and 1966 passing in 1989 at Louisiana-Lafayette. Mitchell has gone on to an NFL career as one of the top kick returners in the league and he is still playing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Dantzler has 819 yards rushing and 1271 yards passing through seven games this year. He is on pace for a 1287-yard rushing season and a 1997-yard passing season for an 11-game regular season schedule. He leads the ACC and ranks 11th in the nation in rushing and is ranked ninth in the nation in passing efficiency.

For those of your who might doubt Dantzler’s ability to accomplish the 2000/1000 double, check the chart below. For his first 11 games as Clemson’s quarterback he passed for 2095 yards and rushed 1037. After the Duke game, his 14-game numbers in Bowden’s offense read 2675 yards passing and 1361 yards rushing. For his 14 games as Clemson quarterback he has averaged 97 yards a game rushing and 191 yards a game through the air.

Dantzler as Clemson’s Quarterback in Bowden System (14 Games)

Dantzler Already 5th in Total Offense at Clemson Even though Woodrow Dantzler has started just 13 games at quarterback in his Clemson career, he is already fifth in school history in total offense. He has accumulated 2090 yards this year and now has 4350 for his career. That total is broken down to 1491 rushing and 2859 passing. He has played just 22 total games, meaning he averages 197.7 yards per game, an all-time Clemson record on a career basis.

Dantzler still has a long way to go to catch career record holder Nealon Greene, who had 6786 career total offense yards. But, he still has the rest of this season and all of next season. Dantzler needs just 265 yards against North Carolina to move into fourth place, ahead of Homer Jordan, the quarterback on Clemson’s 1981 National Championship team. Jordan attended the Maryland game and visited with Dantzler in the locker room after the game.

Clemson Career Leaders in Total Offense

Dantzler Ranked in Top 13 Nationally in Five Areas Clemson quarterback Woodrow Dantzler is ranked in the top 13 in the nation in five different statistical categories, a testimony to his all-around abilities. Dantzler ranks ninth in the nation in passing efficiency with a 149.3 figure and is sixth in points responsible for (18.0PPG). He is ranked sixth in total offense with a 298.6 figure and is tied for 13th in points per game with 10.0. Finally, Dantzler is 11th in the nation in rushing with an average of 117 yards per game.

It is safe to say that this is the highest a Clemson quarterback has ever ranked in rushing at any time in a season. With those strong rushing stats, Dantzler is even ranked in all-purpose running, standing 50th this week.

Against NC State he broke the Clemson single season rushing record for a quarterback. He now has 819 for the season, surpassing the 649 by Steve Fuller in 1978. He needs 181 yards over his last four regular season games to become the 23rd quarterback in college football history to rush for 1000 yards in a season. The last to do it was Chris McKoy of Navy in 1997 and Scott Frost of Nebraska in 1997. The record for quarterback rushing in a season is 1494 by Bea Morgan of Air Force in 1996.

Dantzler has shown his versatility in the touchdown responsibility area. In seven games he has already accounted for 21 touchdowns, 12 rushing and nine passing. That is already a Clemson record, breaking the previous best of 19 by Mark Fellers in 1974.

Dantzler the Passer Clemson quarterback Woodrow Dantzler gets a lot of attention for his running ability. And he should, he leads all quarterbacks nationally in rushing and is first in the ACC overall with 117 yards per game. But, not only does he lead the ACC in rushing, he ranks ninth in the nation in passing efficiency.

Dantzler is also a fine passer as his 62 percent completion percentage and 149.3 passing efficiency rating shows. He has completed 91-147 passes for 1271 yards and nine touchdowns. He has thrown just four interception this year, including one that was batted up in the air by his own receiver, in his 147 attempts.

For his career Dantzler is now first in passing efficiency (135.0), first in completion percentage (.578). Dantzler is also fifth in yards per attempt and 6th in total touchdown passes.

Clemson Career Leaders in Passing Efficiency (Minimum of 100 attempts)

Dantzler Ranked Among Nation’s Best at Midseason Clemson quarterback Woodrow Dantzler is listed as first-team All-American quarterback at midseason according to The Sporting News and cnnsi.com. He is also ranked as the number-one candidate for the Heisman trophy this week on heismanwatch.com and collegefootballnews.com.

Attention on the accomplishments for Clemson’s starting quarterback have picked up in recent weeks. Features have been authored on Dantzler in the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, New York Daily News, USA Today and many others. He has also been featured on ESPN’s Gameday, on Fox Sportsnet and CNN. Sports Illustrated has been to Clemson’s campus as well and a feature could appear next week’s issue.

Records Held by Dantzler *Clemson single game total offense record *ACC single game record for yards rushing by a quarterback *Clemson single game record for passing efficiency. *Clemson single game record for completion percentage *Clemson’s career leader in passing efficiency. *Clemson’s career leader in completion percentage. *Clemson record for career total offense per game *Clemson record for yards rushing in a season by a quarterback *Clemson record for touchdowns rushing and passing in a season *Clemson career record for 300-yard total offense games. *Clemson record for consecutive 200-yard total offense games. *Clemson record for consecutive 300-yard total offense games. *Clemson record for rushing yardage by any player in three consecutive games.

Quotes on Clemson Quarterback Woodrow Dantzler

“He’s a single-wing tailback now. That offense helps him because they’ve tailored it to him. We thought we had enough people around the ball to stop him. I don’t know if we missed tackles or what happened, but once he hit the secondary, I knew we were in trouble.” George Welsh, Virginia Head Coach

“You go out there to stop the pass and you have his escapability (to deal with) and it makes it tough to get him down. He is a strong runner. We had him a few times and he ran right through us. At times it looked like a game of flag football.” Carl Franks, Duke Head Coach

“Woody Dantzler is a very good player who is tough to handle. Sometimes you find a player who is good in the passing game, but he is unable to run the ball. Dantzler can throw the ball very well and he can run it like a tailback. He really gave us some problems. I thought we were playing good defense for a while, then he got results.” Jim Caldwell, Wake Forest Head Coach

‘He ran the offense very efficiently and effectively. It looked like a hard offense to run because he’s got a lot of things to do out there. We didn’t think he could throw the ball downfield very well… but we found out he could.” Moe Ankney, Missouri Defensive Coordinator

“You’ve got to make sure you keep him in the pocket, not take too many chances in your pass rush. You can’t gamble inside and let him get out of the pocket and into open space where he can make a play.” Ljubomir Stamenich, University of Virginia defensive end.

“If the Tigers most versatile, electrifying player in decades, maybe ever, isn’t a legitimate candidate for college football’s top award, then no one is.” Bob Gillespie, Senior Writer, The State Newspaper, Columbia, SC

“It’s the production that counts, and Woody Dantzler is off to a tremendous start. He’s having the best year of any quarterback out there.” Gary Danielson, ABC Sports commentator

“Woodrow Dantzler is a Michael Vick-type QB. He has the athleticism we’ve seen take over college football the last few years. Shaun King (Tampa Bay Bucs) ran a similar system to an undefeated season at Tulane under Tommy Bowden two years ago. Not only can Dantzler throw like King, he’s also very versatile because of his ability to run. ” Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN Analyst

“When he’s clicking, there’s really nothing you can do. You can’t stop him, you can just try to contain him. God has blessed him with a lot of talent and he is using it.” Keith Adams, Clemson All-America linebacker

“What does he mean to us? Everything! Woody is our leader on offense, the whole team for that matter. He sees a gap, he’s gone for a touchdown.” Joe Don Reames, Clemson wide receiver

“Someone in the media is going to have to start paying attention to what’s been done (by Dantzler). If the guy at Virginia Tech keeps getting credit, and rightfully so, and this guy’s performing at a higher level, he ought to be recognized for it. Statistically he has been more productive.”Tommy Bowden, Clemson Head Coach

“Dantzler is really quick and elusive. He is fast, tough, durable and is just a terrific player. He reminds me of Darian Hagan when we were at Colorado. How about having your quarterback be number one in the conference in rushing and number two in passing efficiency. He is clearly the guy who makes things happen.” Ron Vanderlinden, Maryland Head Coach

“Dantzler’s ability is very hard to simulate in practice. There are about 25 snaps in a tgame where the play is called for him to run the football. He is a tailback playing quarterback, it’s basically a single wing offense. He can run it and he can throw it and that is what drives you absolutely crazy. As a runner he reminds me of Ted Brown (former NC State running back who finished tied for sixth in the Heisman race in 1978) in that he has tremendous lower body strength. He’s shifty, but powerful and breaks tackles upon tackles. Preparing for him is similar to preparing for Michael Vick because they are both dominating players and have the ability to dominate games.” Chuck Amato, NC State Head Coach

“The worst thing that we did last year (in the Clemson game) was knocking (Clemson QB Brandon) Streeter out of the game. Dantzler came in and made two or three really big plays, which beat us last year. He is an outstanding runner, Vvery strong and very quick. He’s been hit pretty well at times, but he is a tough guy that can take a lick and continue to move on. He also throws the ball well and mixes it up well. He has a good understanding of what they’re doing offensively. I don’t think there is any doubt, in my opinion, that at this stage of the season he should be a Heisman Trophy candidate.” Carl Tarbush, North Carolina Head Coach