Unga may be top BYU freshman RB ever

PROVO — BYU's Harvey Unga is on the verge of becoming the most prolific freshman running back in school history.

That's saying something, considering the Cougars have had a few freshmen who have made a big impact in the backfield in recent years, such as Ronney Jenkins, Luke Staley and Curtis Brown.

Unga rushed for 145 yards on 21 carries and scored a touchdown Saturday in BYU's 42-7 rout of Eastern Washington at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Through seven games this season, Unga has 684 yards, which is 49 yards short of the freshman rushing record held by Jenkins, who gained 733 yards in 1996.

His performance Saturday marked his fourth game this season with at least 100 yards on the ground. That's another school record for a freshman. The previous mark was held by both Jenkins and Jamal Willis, who each had two 100-yard rushing games as freshmen.

"Harvey has a lot of heart. He runs hard," quarterback Max Hall said. "When we need a big play, he can get it. I can't say enough good things about him."

Many of Unga's yards against Eastern Washington came by his own effort, darting outside and evading would-be tacklers, not so much because of the offensive line.

"A lot of Harvey's yards weren't blocked necessarily well. He just had great vision and wouldn't go down," coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "I wasn't crediting the holes that we opened, and I wasn't crediting the execution of the run game, but he specifically is to be credited. Harvey did a great job with his individual effort. Very rarely do I single out any individual, but Harvey did a really nice job. A lot of those yards were earned yards by him. "

What's more, Unga was also the Cougars' leading receiver, hauling in four passes for 57 yards and another touchdown. In all, Unga racked up 202 yards of total offense, more than half of BYU's 377 yards — 53 percent of the total.

Unga said he took it upon himself to do what he could for the offense: "Before the game, (running backs) coach (Lance) Reynolds challenged us, individually, to come out and set the tempo for the team. I kind of took that personally. I wanted to do that."

Saturday also marked the return of junior Fui Vakapuna, who had not played since the Tulsa game on Sept. 15, when he broke his hand. Vakapuna rushed 15 times for 37 yards, including 16 yards in losses. He also scored BYU's final touchdown on a 6-yard run with 13:38 left in the game.

"It was nice to be back and get into the end zone," Vakapuna said.

Manase Tonga added six carries for 21 yards and a touchdown.

"We have an awesome run game right now," Hall said. "All of our backs are capable. I'm proud of all of them."

---

E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com