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It was an incredible day for Buffalo Bulls running back Jaret Patterson, who set multiple team, conference, and NCAA records in a 70-41 win over the Kent State Golden Flashes Saturday at UB Stadium.
Patterson finished the game with 36 carries for 409 yards and eight touchdowns. None of that is a misprint.
Patterson tied the record of Illinois Howard Griffith with eight rushing touchdowns, but that was set during the 1990 season against Southern Illinois, a non-Division-1A program. Patterson is the first player to tally eight times against an FBS/D-1A opponent.
The total rushing yardage record belongs to Samaje Perine of Oklahoma, who ran for 427 yards against Kansas in 2014. At the time Kansas alleged to be an FBS program, but Perine only had five touchdowns for the game. What a slacker.
On the final Buffalo drive of the game, head coach Lance Leipold actually took out Patterson with him 19 yards from his ninth rushing touchdown. His backup Kevin Marks took it to the end zone two plays later.
“I gotta give credit to the big guys up front.” Patterson said after the game during his broadcast postgame interview on CBS Sports Network. “Nobody really told me until about the sixth one,” he said about his awareness of the touchdown record he was about to break.
You can make the case this was the most dominant performance for a running back in the history of college football. Buffalo as a team averaged 9.5 yards per carry and only punted twice all day.