He is not the biggest. He is not the fastest. He doesn’t play against the best competition. But nobody in the history of college football has ever been as prolific as Donnel Pumphrey.
The San Diego State running back broke Ron Dayne’s all-time NCAA rushing record on Saturday. With a 15-yard run in the 4th quarter of their Las Vegas Bowl meeting against Houston Pumphrey topped Dayne’s career record of 6.397 yards.
The 5-foot-9, 180-pound back needed 108 yards for the record and did not get off to a great start. Pumphrey had -1 yard after the first quarter. But the Aztecs offense started clicking after halftime and after a 32-yard touchdown run in the 3rd quarter the record was suddenly well in reach.
Pumphrey, who is a Las Vegas native, also took over the 2016 NCAA rushing lead from Texas back D’Onta Foreman so unless Wyoming’s Brian Hill goes for more than 300 yards in the Poinsettia Bowl then Pumphrey will win the 2016 NCAA rushing title, as well.
It does stand to note that Dayne’s bowl games are not counted in his career stats (the NCAA did not start counting bowl games until 2002, three years after Dayne left Wisconsin). At the time of this writing the Aztecs led Houston 27-10 in the 4th quarter.
