<
        >

          Stats & Info

          Countdown to kickoff: 50 days

          play
          Christian McCaffrey electrifies with 50+ yard touchdowns (1:18)

          Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey electrified the football world in 2015 with plays such as a 50-yard touchdown catch against Washington and a 63-yard punt return in the Rose Bowl. (1:18)

          • Bryan Ives, Stats & Information
          Jul 13, 2016, 04:59 PM ET

          There are 50 days to go until the college football season. With that in mind, let's take a look at some notable 50s.

          THE 50-YARD MAN

          Christian McCaffrey Last Season

          No other player reached the number 50 more often than Stanford's Christian McCaffrey last season. The do-it-all running back notched an FBS-high nine all-purpose plays of at least 50 yards last season on his way to finishing second in Heisman voting. This included rushes, receptions and returns.

          Those big plays helped McCaffrey crush Barry Sanders' single-season record for all-purpose yards, set nearly 30 years ago in Sanders’ Heisman Trophy-winning season of 1988. McCaffrey racked up 3,864 all-purpose yards and those nine 50-yard plays helped set the record; they totaled 636 yards (a 70.67 yard average,) and McCaffrey finished with 614 more all-purpose yards than Sanders.

          Two of those 50-yard plays came in McCaffrey's record-setting Rose Bowl performance. The sophomore scored on a 75-yard pass from Kevin Hogan on the first play from scrimmage. He would later add a 63-yard punt return score in racking up a Rose Bowl-record 368 all-purpose yards in Stanford's 45-16 rout of Iowa.

          URBAN’S 50 WINS

          Urban Meyer at Ohio State

          Urban Meyer is 50-4 in four seasons in Columbus, the best win percentage in FBS over that span. Ohio State joins Boise State and Alabama as the only FBS programs since 1900 to win 50 games in a four-season stretch.

          Looking inside the 50 wins, the Buckeyes are a remarkable 18-0 on the road under Meyer. Every other FBS program has at least two road losses since 2012. And 31 of those wins came against Big Ten foes, giving Ohio State the best win percentage in conference play in that span as well.

          However, the only win that matters to many Buckeyes fans was the 42-20 win over Oregon in the inaugural College Football Playoff title game in January 2015. It gave Meyer his third national championship as he joined Nick Saban as the only head coaches to win a FBS national title at two different schools.

          50 RUSH TD IN SEC

          Leonard Fournette Closing in on Tebow

          LSU’s Leonard Fournette could approach rarified air this season.

          The Tigers running back needs 18 rushing touchdowns to join Tim Tebow as the only players in SEC history with at least 50 rushing scores. Through just two seasons, Fournette's 32 rushing touchdowns are tied for fourth in LSU history. All the other Bayou Bengals with 32 or more played four seasons.

          Fournette was the darling of college football for most of last year. He was averaging 193 rush yards per game over his first seven games -- 45 more than any other player in the FBS -- before Alabama held him to a season-low 31 yards on 19 carries on Nov. 7.

          That game likely ruined his Heisman hopes, but Fournette is back among the favorites to win the Heisman at 5-1 odds per Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. And he stands a good chance of reaching 50 career rushing touchdowns; the Tigers ran the ball 62 percent of the time last season, the second-highest rate in the SEC.

          THE GAME OF THE CENTURY

          No. 1 Notre Dame vs No. 2 Michigan St, 1966

          Let's flash back 50 years to one of the great games in the sports history.

          Billed as the "Game of the Century" at the time, both Notre Dame and Michigan State entered their matchup on Nov. 19, 1966 undefeated. The Irish, led by head coach Ara Parseghian, were 8-0 and ranked No. 1 while the host and defending national champion Spartans were 9-0 and ranked No. 2. The winner would have the clear path to the national title as the AP and coaches released their final polls before the bowls that season.

          The only problem...there was no winner. The top two teams in the country, featuring a combined nine AP All-Americans and two future Hall of Fame head coaches, played to a 10-10 tie that day in East Lansing. Parseghian controversially elected to run out the clock in the fourth quarter rather than try to get in range for a potential game-winning field goal.

          The Irish were named national champs by both the AP and Coaches polls, but the Spartans took home some hardware as well, winning or sharing three minor poll titles. Fifty years later… thank goodness for overtime and the College Football Playoff.

          SPURRIER’S HEISMAN

          Steve Spurrier, 1966 Heisman Trophy Winner

          For the first time since 2004, Steve Spurrier won't be on the sidelines this season. However, 50 years ago the "Head Ball Coach" wasn't a coach at all. In fact, he was the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner.

          Spurrier threw for 2,012 yards and 16 touchdowns as he led the Florida Gators to a 9-2 record and a win over Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. In true Spurrier pass-happy fashion, he averaged more than 29 pass attempts per game that season. No other SEC quarterback attempted more than 23 passes per game that season.

          Spurrier was the first Heisman winner from a Florida school. There wasn't another one for 20 years until Miami's Vinny Testaverde in 1986, but now a total of eight players from a Florida school have won the trophy. That is more than any other state in that span.

          After winning the Heisman, all Spurrier did was go on to become the winningest coach at Florida and South Carolina, the second-winningest coach in SEC history and capture six SEC titles and the 1996 national championship along the way.