Delone Carter's March Through Syracuse Football History

Not so much lost in the Louisville game, but certainly overshadowed, was the fact that Delone Carter leapfrogged three notable Syracuse running backs on the all-time career rushing list.

Delone Carter gained 107 yards and had an eight-yard rushing touchdown against the Cardinals. He surpassed Dee Brown, David Walker and Floyd Little on the Orange career rushing list and is now fifth with 2,724 yards. He now has 10 career 100-yard rushing games.

Next up on the list is James Mungro, who attained 2,869 yards over his career. If Carter has a huge game against Rutgers, he could break that, but chances are he'll do it against UConn. After that it's not too far to Larry Csonka and his 2,934 yards.

That's where Carter will likely end up, as there's just no way he can catch Walter Reyes (3,424), let alone Joe Morris (4,299). Delone would need to average about 233 yards per game to reach Reyes, so...no.

At 576 carries so far, he's already fourth on that all-time list. He should surpass Reyes (625) before the year is over, which tells you just how good Walter was given his total yards. Chances are he won't catch No. 2 Bill Hurley (685) or No. 1 Joe Morris (813).

As for touchdowns, he's got 22 on his career so far, which puts him in ninth place behind Jim Brown (23).  Damien Rhodes (24) and Joe Morris (25) are also within reach. After that it might get tough to pass the guys at No. 4 (Ernie Davis & Dee Brown), who both have 28. Walter Reyes of course leads the way with a monster 45, ten more than anyone else.

With 853 yards on the season and a current average of 94 yards per game, Carter is nearly a lock to surpass 1,000 again. In fact, his current pace gets him to around 1,137, which would be good enough to be the sixth-best single season in SU history.

An interesting question to ask at this point would be...did the injury that kept Delone out of the 2007 season hurt or help his career numbers? Did he benefit from having a year of rehab and strengthening? Or would he have dominated that much more if his career was injury-free? Had he not been injured, he would have had to compete with Curtis Brinkley for a big chunk of carries and would not have gotten this season as the undisputed lead back.

And of course then there's the question of Delone's legacy. Where do you put him amongst the great SU backs that came before him? Probably not a question we can truly ask until this season is over and we can get some perspective. He's not going to be in the Walter Reyes/Joe Morris/Floyd Little category for sure, but I have the feeling he'll be able to hold his own quite well against Dee Brown, James Mungro and Damien Rhodes.

Who knows for now, still too much football to be played. Check out Delone's full stats here.