MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- A two-yard run to begin the second half on Saturday at Miami beared more meaning than most two-yard runs to open a half.
This one added a mere footnote for the storybook season which Israel Abanikanda is writing.
That two-yard run on a second-and-3 from the Pitt 32-yard line put the tailback at 100 rushing yards for the game, which is the ninth occurrence of that storybook season. Abanikanda finished Saturday's 42-16 drubbing of the Hurricanes with 15 carries for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and had plenty of room for more, if not for the blowout flow of the game.
If he can do it again in the Panthers' bowl game, Abanikanda would have the first season of 10-or-more 100-plus yard games since Dion Lewis had 10 in 2009.
Moreover, it would validate even more just how special of a year it really has been for No. 2.
Pat Narduzzi said in the preseason that Pitt was going to have a 1,000-yard rusher on his team.
Who foresaw this?
A welcomed "take that!" at that, as Abanikanda more than exceeded that expectation.
The ACC has a new rushing king, and his name is Izzy.
"Izzy, he's a football player," Narduzzi said on Saturday. "Great speed, he's got great vision, and he's tough and strong. He gets a lot of yards on his own. Obviously the offensive line did a great job for him all year. You don't do it by yourself. The tight end, receivers had some great blocks, as well. Izzy's a football player."
Abanikanda rushed for 1,431 yards this season, blazing by Clemson's Will Shipley by 339 yards for the ACC title. He is the ninth-leading rusher in Football Bowl Subdivision, and is sixth among Power Five running backs in rushing yards. He is seventh in FBS -- fifth among Power Five backs -- in rushing yards per game at 130.1. "Izzy" took it to the "Hizzy" 20 times to lead the nation in rushing TDs, and he is fourth in FBS in all-purpose yards at 1,805.
Pitt RBs with 20+ rushing TD π
β Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) November 27, 2022
Β» James Conner, 26, 2014
Β» Tony Dorsett, 22, 1976
Β» LeSean McCoy, 21, 2008
Β» Israel Abanikanda, 20, 2022#H2P Β» @IAbanikanda pic.twitter.com/wpdclKFkFG
His rushing total is among the best we have ever seen at Pitt.
The yardage is good for eighth in the Pitt record books for rushing yards in a season, and 58 yards in Pitt's bowl game would leapfrog LeSean McCoy's 1,488 yards from the 2008 season for sole possession of seventh.
(Tony Dorsett's 1,686 yards in each of the 1973 and 1975 seasons is not impossible, though unlikely to attain for sole possession of sixth. Abanikanda would need to rush for 256 yards in the bowl game to pass that.)
That would not be the first time Abanikanda attained the rarified air occupied by Dorsett.
Who could forget the night of Oct. 8, when Abanikanda eclipsed Dorsett's single-game rushing record? He boomed for 320 yards and six touchdowns on 36 carries against Virginia Tech, passing Dorsett's 303 yards gained on Nov. 15, 1975 against Notre Dame. Abanikanda's six rushing scores tied Norman Bill Budd's 112-year record, when Budd did so against Ohio on Oct. 29, 1910.
That early-October night was historic within more than just the Pitt record book. That performance made him the third FBS running back from current Power Five programs to rush for 300 yards and score six TDs in a game over the last 25 seasons.
The other two? Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams and Pro Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson.
Not bad.
"He deserves it, man," Panthers receiver Jared Wayne said. "He works his tail off every day. He comes in, he works. Very happy for him."
Abanikanda is a candidate for numerous prestigious national performance-based awards: All-America, the ACC Player of the Year, the Doak Walker Award (nation's best running back), the Maxwell Award (writer's pick for college football's best player), and the Walter Camp Award (coaches' pick for player of the year).
He should gather at least one, maybe two, perhaps three of those honors, but note one which was not mentioned.
Should Abanikanda be a Heisman Trophy candidate?
It's tough to say. But I'm leaning towards the "not this year" side of the multi-dimensional fence.
Michigan's Blake Corum likely has the edge as far as running backs go, and that award is tough enough for a running back to win in the first place. Alabama's Derrick Henry was the last back to win it (2015), and only two running back shave won the award since 2000 -- Henry and Alabama's Mark Ingram (2009).
Now, if Abanikanda stays for one more season at Pitt, he could vault into the conversation.
His NFL draft stock has never been higher, and it can only increase from this point if he puts together a Heisman-caliber season next year.
This could have been reactionary, but I think it holds up for now: Shortly after Abanikanda's record-breaking day in October, Ian Cummings of the Pro Football Network published this piece on Abanikanda's draft stock, pegging him as a "potential early-round prospect with Day 2 ability."
Again, I think that holds up a month and a half later. His decision to stay or commit to the draft will be one of the major dominoes to fall, one way or another, over the offseason. He certainly has rocketed into that draft territory, and his frame (5-foot-11, 215 pounds) is pretty desirable and operative for any NFL club to take a flyer on, especially for a 20-year-old.
Regardless, we'll always have 2022 to remember. It truly was a season for the ages, and it has one act to go, in December.
