Question: Which American college and professional football player who held the franchise record in rushing before Barry Sanders passed him in 1992?
Context: The Heisman curse is a term coined to reference a two-part assertion of a negative future for the winning player of the Heisman Trophy.  The "curse" supposes that any college football player who wins the Heisman plays on a team that will likely lose its subsequent bowl game.  The trend of post-award failure has garnered the attention of the mainstream media.  Talk of a curse in relation to bowl results was particularly prevalent from 2003 to 2008, when six Heisman Trophy winners compiled a cumulative 1–5 bowl game record, and five of those six led number one ranked teams into the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game as favorites (Heisman Trophy winners, including Reggie Bush, who gave back his Heisman Trophy, are 4–8 overall in the BCS National Championship Game and College Football Playoff National Championship, although prior to 2009 they were 1–6).  Additionally, the Heisman curse asserts that in most cases a Heisman winner will have either a poor career in the National Football League (NFL), or in fact not even see such a football career at all.  Although many Heisman winners have not enjoyed success at the professional level, including players like Matt Leinart, Andre Ware, Jason White, Rashaan Salaam, Eric Crouch, Ty Detmer, Troy Smith and Gino Torretta, proponents of the "curse" rarely cite highly successful players such as Barry Sanders, Charles Woodson, Eddie George, Tim Brown, Bo Jackson, Marcus Allen, Earl Campbell, and Tony Dorsett among the notables. The 1987 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team represented the Oklahoma State University in the 1987 NCAA Division I-A college football season.  The Cowboys finished the regular season with a 9–2 record.  Thurman Thomas was in his senior year for the Cowboys.  In his career at Oklahoma State, Thomas had 897 rushes for 4,595 yards, 43 touchdowns, and 21 100-yard rushing games.  He also a Heisman Trophy candidate and a first team selection on the College Football All-America Team in 1987.  In the 1987 Sun Bowl, Thomas ran for 157 yards and four touchdowns in the 35–33 victory over West Virginia, keeping Barry Sanders on the sidelines for the majority of the game.  Thomas left OSU as the school's all-time leading rusher and his number 34 is one of only three jerseys retired at Oklahoma State.  Sanders replaced Thomas as starter the next year in 1988. Marion Rushing (September 3, 1936 – April 26, 2013) was a professional American football player.  Born in Pinckneyville, Illinois, he played nine and a half seasons in the National Football League (NFL), mainly for the Chicago Cardinals/St. Louis Cardinals.  He finished his pro rootball career in 1968 with the Houston Oilers of the American Football League (AFL).  While at Southern Illinois University (SIU), Rushing earned more athletic letters than any other athlete in Saluki history.  He earned a total of 13 letters while playing football, basketball, track, and wrestling for SIU.  Following his career at SIU, Rushing went on to play professional football in both the NFL and AFL.  He was inducted into the charter class of the Saluki Hall of Fame in 1978.  In 2010 Southern Illinois University honored Saluki Hall of Famer Marion Rushing by renaming a street near the new football stadium, Marion Rushing Lane. The 2000 Cincinnati Bengals season was the team's 33rd year in professional football and its 31st with the National Football League.  Corey Dillon would rank fifth in the NFL with 1,435 rushing yards and set a franchise record for most rushing yards in one season.  On October 22, 2000, Dillon set a franchise record by rushing for 278 yards in one game. Billy Ray Sims (born September 18, 1955) is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons during the 1980s.  Sims played college football for the University of Oklahoma, where he was a two-time consensus All-American, and won the Heisman Trophy in 1978.  He was the first overall pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the NFL's Detroit Lions.  Sims was the last Oklahoma player taken Number 1 overall in the NFL Draft until quarterback Sam Bradford was taken first in the 2010 NFL Draft.  He was given the nickname "Kung Fu Billy Sims" by ESPN's Chris Berman, after a game where the Detroit Lions played the Houston Oilers.  In the NFL Films highlight, rather than be tackled during a rushing attempt, Sims ran at, jumped, and, while fully airborne, kicked Oilers Cornerback Steve Brown in the head. Paul T. Boudreau (born December 30, 1949) is an American football coach who last served as offensive line coach for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL).  He has served as the offensive line coach for eight different NFL teams, one Canadian Football League (CFL) team, and four college teams.  No offensive line coach in the NFL has more experience as an assistant at the professional level than Boudreau, who entered his 29th season in 2015.  Boudreau’s stellar offensive lines over the years have helped pave the way for five running backs to top the 10,000-yard career rushing mark, including Barry Sanders, Curtis Martin, Thurman Thomas, Fred Taylor and Steven Jackson.  This is his second stint with the Rams organization, having previously coached them in the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The 1992 Detroit Lions season was the 63rd season in franchise history.  After going 12–4 the previous season, the Lions had a disappointing season, finishing with five wins and eleven losses despite another Pro Bowl season from Barry Sanders, who passed Billy Sims for the franchise record in rushing on November 22nd.  The Lions were expected to once again challenge for the NFC title. The 1990 Detroit Lions season was the 61st season in franchise history.  Despite a stellar season from Barry Sanders who scored sixteen touchdowns and led the league in rushing, the Lions took a step backward and finished in third place with a disappointing, seventh-consecutive losing record of 6–10, as they struggled to find a consistent quarterback. Barry Sanders (born July 16, 1968) is a former American football running back.  He played professionally for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL).  A Pro Bowl invitee in each of his ten NFL seasons and two-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year, Sanders led the league in rushing yards four times and established himself as one of the most elusive runners in pro football with his quickness and agility.  In 2007, he was ranked by NFL Network's "NFL Top 10" series as the most elusive runner in NFL history, and also topped its list of greatest players never to play in a Super Bowl. Tony Reed (born March 30, 1955) was an American college and professional football player.  A star at Colorado, he played five professional seasons as a running back from 1977-1981.  When he was in Kansas City he wore number 32.  Rushing the ball his stats were 2,340 total rushing yards, 8 rushing Touchdowns.  Receiving Statistics are 1,699 receiving yards and two TDs.  He played 71 Games.  Prior to transferring to Colorado, Reed played at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California after moving from Japan.  around the time his father had been stationed in the military.  His addition to what was, at that time, a small town junior college football team caused a remarkable stir in the support of the program from the community.
Answer: Billy Sims