RB Respect Month Vol. 2, Day 12: Larry Johnson eclipses 2,000 yards in style (2002)
279 yards rushing in the first half!
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Welcome to day 12 of Running Back Respect Month™! Yesterday, Toby Gerhart's 205 yards against Notre Dame made us re-litigate the 2009 Heisman race. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Larry Johnson vs. Michigan State (2002)
RB Respect Month Vol. 2, Day 12: Larry Johnson eclipses 2,000 yards in style (2002)
The final two regular season games of Penn State running back Larry Johnson's 2002 are about as ridiculous as you'll ever find. Through ten games, Johnson had a year productive enough to earn some discussion in the Heisman race, or at worst be a First Team All-American:
As far as reaching the 2,000-yard mark, though? I don't think anyone had that on their agenda. That all changed when Johnson put up an ungodly 327 yards and four touchdowns on 28 carries (11.7) against Indiana:
By the end of the day, Johnson sat at 1,736 yards - 264 away from the magical plateau only the most select of college backs had reached. Achieving it in Penn State's final regular season game wasn't a pipe-dream, either, given their opponent.
Michigan State was in the throes of a disaster 4-8 season. The Spartans fired head coach Bobby Williams after a 49-3 loss at Michigan three weeks earlier, and had just given up 45 points and 307 yards rushing to 4-6 Purdue. This was a team dying to get to the offseason, and everybody –from Penn State players and coaches to the media covering the game– knew it. It wasn't a matter of whether Johnson could run on the Spartans as much as the degree to which Joe Paterno would let Johnson embarrass them before taking him off the field.
Turns out he only needed the first half:
