Kansas State sophomore running back Deuce Vaughn had another great game Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks. He ran for 162 yards and three touchdowns on eleven carries and caught six passes for 70 yards. Every week that goes by, more and more people tell me that Vaughn reminds them of Darren Sproles. The comparison is unavoidable since they are very similar in stature, speed, elusiveness, and explosiveness. I was curious to see how Deuce Vaughn is tracking compared to Darren Sproles at this point in his college career. Maybe out of pure luck, I realized that Sproles played in 19 games in his freshman and sophomore seasons at K-State, and Vaughn just finished playing his 19th game for the Wildcats. So let’s see how Vaughn stacks up to Sproles “by the numbers.”

Games

Vaughn (2020-2021) – 19

Sproles (2001-2002) – 19

Rushing Yards (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 1,496

Sproles – 1,675

Yards Per Attempt (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 5.4

Sproles – 6.3

Rushing Touchdowns (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 19

Sproles – 18

Receptions (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 63

Sproles – 9

Receiving Yards (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 855

Sproles – 99

Receiving touchdowns (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 5

Sproles – 0

Total Yards From Scrimmage (Through 19 games)

Vaughn – 2,351

Sproles – 1,774

What can we glean from these numbers? Darren Sproles played on some very good K-State teams with very good offensive lines, but his rushing numbers and Deuce Vaughn’s rushing numbers are similar. Through 19 games, Sproles ran for 200 more yards and averaged one yard per carry more than Vaughn does. Also, The Bill Snyder version of the Wildcats did not use Darren Sproles out of the backfield as much as the Chris Klieman version of the Wildcats use Deuce Vaughn. Vaughn is on pace to have more receiving yards and touchdowns in his career than Sproles did. Sproles had more catches out of the backfield his junior and senior years, but I expect Vaughn will as well.

Darren Sproles dominates the K-State rushing record book. He is number one on the K-State career rushing yards list with 4,979 yards. He had an exceptional junior year in 2003, rushing for almost two thousand yards. Second place on K-State’s all-time rushing list is John Hubert with 2,993 yards, just under two thousand yards behind Sproles. Can Deuce Vaughn catch Darren Sproles to become K-State’s all-time leading rusher? Perhaps, especially if he plays the extra season that he earned during the Covid year of 2020, but it will not be easy. Catching John Hubert for second place is much more likely. Vaughn is only 1,497 yards away from second place. He’s 3,483 yards behind Sproles, so if he does play three more years, he might catch him. Would there be an asterisk in the record book? Perhaps, but it doesn’t matter. It will be fun to watch his progress either way.