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This Day In Sports…November 17, 2018:
Running back Alexander Mattison goes over the 1,000-yard mark to extend Boise State’s streak of 1,000-yard rushers to 10 consecutive years, the longest in the nation. Mattison ran for 145 yards in a 45-14 win at New Mexico and reached the milestone on his final carry, a 41-yard touchdown run. It was his second straight 1,000-yard campaign—he’d end up with 1,415 yards in 13 games before forgoing his senior season and going to the NFL as a third-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings.
The 1,000-yard streak began in 2009 with Jeremy Avery, who was the lead back during Boise State’s undefeated season before Doug Martin took over that role the following year. Martin topped 1,000 in back-to-back years, and D.J. Harper had the next such season in 2012. Then came Jay Ajayi, Jeremy McNichols and Mattison, who all did it twice. The streak ended at 11 seasons after George Holani tallied 1,014 yards as a true freshman in 2019.
The COVID year in 2020 didn’t count, as it lasted only seven games. But with Holani limited by injuries in 2021, he rushed for 569 yards, followed by Cyrus Habibi-Likio at 374 and Andrew Van Buren at 218. Holani began another Boise State 1,000-yard streak in 2022, and Ashton Jeanty added to it the past two years (capped by his legendary 2,601 yards last season).
Can Dylan Riley make it four in a row? It was looking good after his 201 yards versus UNLV four weeks ago. Now, Riley is at 824 yards for the season, and—barring a turnaround that would get the Broncos into the Mountain West championship game—he has three games left (including a bowl). Riley would need to average 58.7 yards per game.
Boise State didn’t even have a 1,000-yard rusher during its first 10 seasons as a four-year program. The first seven of those were under pass-happy coach Tony Knap, whose aerial attack was ahead of its time. The first member of the 1,000-yard club was Cedric Minter, who rushed for 1,526 yards as a sophomore in 1978. Minter went over 1,000 again in 1979 and 1980 would go on to hold the Broncos career record of 4,475 yards for 44 years—until it was broken last year by Jeanty.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
