With our optimism running high for a Chuba return announcement today [edit - “soon”] resulting in a new set of returning triplets, I thought I’d pull some data together on the best of the Cowboy Triplets in the modern era (and since I’m an #old, that includes the 80’!). I looked at each season where an experienced set of triplets were returning and totaled their prior career stats (yards from scrimmage and TDs). Then I looked at the actual results from the following season. I identified SEVEN sets of returning triplets - and the seasons they produced are some of the best in Cowboy history. Certainly understandable why Coach Gundy is excited about the possibilities in 2020! The table below is sorted by returning total yards.
From a production perspective, Rudolph/Hill/Washington and Weeden/Randle/Blackmon were unbelievable - ~8000 yards and ~70 TDs each. The rest were generally in the ~5000 yards and ~40-50 TDs range. Note however the number of TDs put on the board by the Gundy/Sanders/Dykes set of triplets - the most of all at 73!
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For the 6 teams with returning triplets, four of them finished with double-digit win totals (10-3, 12-1, 10-2, and 10-2) and the others were just short at 9. That’s what I am most looking forward to in 2020.
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That last stat is a nice one ha
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That’s what it is all about, right? [Well, I guess today I should say, “that’s what it’s all about, eh?”]
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I’m all on board with optimism, but I’m not sure the premise is warranted at this point. And not because of Chuba’s uncertain status as of this moment, but because of Sanders.
As of now, how confident are we that he belongs in the group with Gundy, Fields, Robinson, Weeden, and Rudolph? There’s no doubt that he has the potential to get there, but is he there now?
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Good point. I thought about that and the experience level is not the same as the other returning QBs. But we can certainly see the potential in Sanders, so I think it remains fair for an optimistic outlook.
Right now he reminds me more of Ronnie Williams who was a crazy athlete with a big arm but less than accurate.
I was there for the Ronnie Williams era. I don’t agree with this comparison. I liked Ronnie, but I think Spencer is much better.
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Right now it’s a closer comparison than Gundy, Weeden, or Rudolph.
Well, yes, he’d be between those 3 and Ronnie. The more interesting question… how would you compare him to a “returning to 2013” 2-headed combo of Walsh and Chelf? I almost included that year in the list, with a combination of Walsh/Chelf plus Roland and Stewart. Their returning stats were not in line with the other triplets in the study, so I hid their row.
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Didn’t Spencer Sanders break all the freshmen records? Much closer in my opinion to Rudolph junior year after he had his first full year under his belt. The question will be how he processes the growth mentally much more than physically. He sure made a lot of strides this season before he got hurt!
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We all hope he can be the better version of Robinson/Chelf/Walsh. Turnovers killed SS. Teams stats show 2019 to be only slightly worse but that’s because DB came in. Right now I’d say SS is behind Walsh/Chelf combo.
Yes, turnovers were a killer early in the season. Once you clean those up though, we started going on that little win streak including with the win at Iowa State.
Sanders made visible progress during the season.
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Remember we are comparing to pre-2013 Walsh/Chelf. They were not nearly as experienced then.
Some have said it, but it warrants repeating that Coach Gundy made the right decision with Cornelius. It’ll be interesting to see if Illingworth makes it a competition next year. Walsh was special and I love him for it, so I don’t see Sanders staying if he gets passed (and I wouldn’t blame him).
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I agree with you 100% on Cornelius. Hope we never see a Sanders transfer. I still think he is going to be special. And Illingsworth too.
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I am relieved that Chuba announced his return… had been slightly concerned my premature post was going to jinx it.
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Summary of seasons for the Returning Triplet teams:
2017 - 3 ranked wins (@22 WV, @24 ISU, vs #22 Virginia Tech), 2 ranked losses (16 TCU, 8 OU), 1 unranked loss (KSU)
2009 - 1 ranked win (13 Georgia), 1 ranked loss (3 Texas), 3 unranked losses (Houston, OU, Ole Miss)
2003 - 1 ranked win (22 KSU), 3 ranked losses (@1 OU, 11 Texas, 16 Ole Miss), 1 unranked loss (@Nebraska)
2011 - 5 ranked wins (@8 A&M, @22 Texas, 17 KSU, 13 OU, 4 Stanford), 1 unranked loss (ISU)
1988 - 1 ranked win (15 Wyoming), 2 ranked losses (@7 Nebraska, 8 OU)
1987 - 0 ranked wins, 2 ranked losses (2 Nebraska, @1 OU)
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You obviously don’t want a flood of transfers, but if you recruit a bunch of talented guys and some decide to leave because they were beat out, that just means you have a plethora of talent. Not a bad problem to have. If Spencer transfers because Illingworth is that special then I don’t mind that. Obviously it would be better to retain him and I hope Spencer has a great career. It just comes down to the circumstance and why the transfer is happening, but transfers aren’t always bad.
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