 
Charles tabbed Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week
Texas junior RB Jamaal Charles has been named the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Offensive Player of the Week after setting career highs with 290 yards on 33 carries and scoring three TDs in a 28-25 victory over Nebraska. With Texas trailing 17-9 entering the fourth quarter, Charles broke off TD runs of 25, 86 and 40 yards to help lead the Longhorns past the Cornhuskers. Charles rushed for 216 yards and three TDs in the fourth quarter alone. The 216 yards in a quarter were a UT record and just six yards shy of the NCAA mark for rushing yards in a quarter (222, Corey Dillon vs. San Jose State, 1996). Behind Charles' career-high 290-yard rushing day (No. 4 on the UT all-time single-game list), the Horns rushed for a season-high 364 yards on 48 carries (7.6 ypc). The 290 rushing yards were the most by any player ever against the Huskers, surpassing the 247 yards by Oklahoma's Billy Simms in 1979. The 290 yards pushed Charles over 1,000 rushing yards (1,012) for the first time in his UT career and he became the 21st Longhorn to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Charles rushed for 237 second-half yards, just four yards less than Hodges Mitchell's UT record of 241 yards in a half versus Kansas in 2000. With Texas trailing 17-9 with 13:13 left in the game, Charles ignited the Horns final surge by capping a four-play, 74-yard drive with a 25-yard TD run that pulled Texas to within 17-15. Charles' two rushes on that drive accounted for 50 yards. He followed up that effort with a spectacular, career-long 86-yard TD run, which is tied for the fifth-longest run in UT history, two possessions later that gave the Horns their first lead since the second quarter at 21-17. Charles completed his scoring onslaught with a 40-yard TD run that put UT up, 28-17, with 3:34 remaining. All totaled, his three TDs came during a 9:39 fourth quarter stretch that saw Charles run for 196 yards on nine carries (21.1 ypc). This is the fourth consecutive year that the Walter Camp Football Foundation is honoring one offensive and one defensive player as its national "Bowl Subdivision Player of the Week." Selections are made each week during the regular season by a panel of national media members and publicized by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
|
|
