Dick Harmon: BYU Football -- Can BYU's Williams end up a 1,000-yard rusher?

Well, because BYU doesn’t pass the ball very well downfield, we’ve seen offensive coordinator Brandon Doman set up his short passing game off the run — and he’s done so very effectively. But it’s tough when defenders crowd the box, daring BYU to pass deep while covering the run, thus a challenge for Williams and Doman.

This tiny statistical category matters because its fun to speculate and, like I mentioned, this is what November has become for the Cougars when they’ve lost early and are not ranked.

Reaching the 1,000-yard mark is a big deal for BYU runners because they operate in an offense that wants to be 50-50, but are known more for just chucking it. Well, not this season.

If Williams can get to the 1,000 mark, he’ll be in the running to catch Harvey Unga, the school’s all-time career rushing leader, who gained 3,455 career net yards in just three seasons.

If the kid rushes for 1,000 yards this season, he’ll join some famous names in BYU’s barely 1,000-yard rushing club, like Lakei Heimuli (1,003), Jamal Willis (1,042) and Curtis Brown (1,123).

And that would be worth noting.

Especially when he didn’t really have a September.

Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com.