One of the greatest things about meticulous stat keeping that happens in college football these days is the ability to go through record books and find quirky stats that help tell fun stories. Like how Washington has a section in the stat book for all of the longest runs in program history that didn’t end up scoring touchdowns.
And today, we’re going to go over how Chris Polk punished the Washington State Cougars with an impressive play and made a little bit of UW football history in the process and it’s because he didn’t actually make it into the end zone.
Let’s go back to the 2010 edition of the Apple Cup, shall we?
Washington Husky football history: Looking back at Chris Polk’s fun 72 yard run against the Washington State Cougars
In what was a solid 35-28 win over Washington State in the annual Apple Cup, Polk helped the Huskies secure bowl eligibility. In total, the talented running back ended up racking up 284 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries.
But, it wasn’t either of those touchdown runs that ended up getting Polk moved into the record book. It was the fact that Polk ran for 72 yards on one carry that didn’t end up in the end zone. That run was good for No. 6 on Washington’s list of longest runs without a touchdown.
Which, I still absolutely love that there is a way to categorize these sorts of stats.
It is worth noting that the 284 yards that Polk ran for in this game happened to be good enough to get him listed on another part of UW’s history books, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about this quirky stat that Polk put up. This non-scoring play helped secure Polk a spot in UW football history.