Donnel Pumphrey advances to 29th on all-time NCAA rushing list

Ok, by now if you still aren't a Donnel Pumphrey believer, please allow me to baptize you in the holy gatorade for another minute or two. San Diego State's Pumphrey is the real deal, and sportscasters are scrambling to get up to speed on him and the trajectory by which he is rewriting the NCAA record book. He's beginning to fly by some of the greatest players ever.

As a brief recap, Pumphrey began this season ranked #74 on the all time NCAA rushing list. In his first two games of this season he has rushed for a whopping 379 yards including the 281-yard breakout performance against California. Last week we reported that after his performance he had moved to become the #39 all time rusher, passing former SDSU record holder and NFL Hall-of-Famer Marshall Faulk, and football great Bo Jackson.

During last week's posting we at the Mountain West Connection dared to project that, if Donnel Pumphrey were to rush for 200 yards in his next game, he would conceivably advance to 29th place on the all-time NCAA rushing list.

Lo and behold: against Northern Illinois he rushed for 220 yards for a career total 4871. And yes, that's 599 yards in his first three games.

He moved to 29th place, and he passed football greats Marcus Allen and Thurman Thomas.

With help from the Aztecs offensive line, Pumphrey made mincemeat out of the Huskies' defense- and in front of a home crowd no less. This caused the home team to become increasingly emotionally charged, leading to injuries, personal fouls and (wait for it) dozens upon dozens of penalty yards awarded to the Aztecs.

Looking forward, here is where Pumphrey will find himself after the next 200 yards. He stands to become the #17 all time rusher, and he stands to surpass the following greats: