DALLAS (FWAA) – Jaret Patterson ran for 409 yards and an NCAA-record-tying eight touchdowns to lead the Buffalo Bulls in a 70-41 win against Kent State to take control of the Mid-American Conference's East Division race. For the record-setting day and winning the clash between previously-undefeated teams, Buffalo earned the Reveal Suits National Team of the Week honor for games of the weekend of Nov. 28, as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.
This is the first time for Buffalo (4-0) to earn the Team of the Week honor and it is the first MAC school to win it since Sept. 16, 2017, when NIU won at Nebraska. All Division I FBS and FCS schools are eligible to be selected. This is the 19th season for the FWAA to award a Team of the Week.
Patterson, a junior from Glendale, Md., consumed almost every highlight from the game's first play when he bolted for 62 yards and scored his first touchdown moments later. The eight rushing touchdowns tied an NCAA record for a single game, and the 409 yards were a MAC and school record and are just short of the all-time NCAA single-game record by Samaje Perine with 427 yards against Kansas in 2014. It was just the fourth 400-yard rushing game in major college football history and shattered the conference single-game record set by Central Michigan's Robbie Mixon (377) in 2002.
The remarkable day comes one week after Patterson ran for 301 yards and four touchdowns at Bowling Green. Only 1998 Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams of Texas has recorded back-to-back 300-yard rushing games, but Patterson's 710 yards outpaces Williams' 668, who ran for 318 vs. Rice and 350 vs. Iowa State that season. Through four games, Patterson has now rushed for 920 yards and 16 touchdowns and now leads the nation in rushing at 230.0 yards per game. In just the four games, the 920 yards are the fourth-highest total nationally.
Patterson scored on a 31-yard run on UB's second possession and added a 42-yard TD scamper with 21 seconds left in the first quarter. He added two more touchdowns in the second quarter and rushed for 267 yards and five touchdowns in the first half alone.
Buffalo led only 35-31 after Kent State scored on its first possession of the second half, but Patterson's 58-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, his eighth scoring run, pushed the lead back out while tying Illinois' Howard Griffith's for the NCAA single-game rushing touchdown record set in 1990. For the day, Buffalo rushed for a program-record 515 yards – fellow running back Kevin Marks had 97 yards and two touchdowns – and the 10 total rushing touchdowns were also a school record. The 70 points were the most scored by a UB team in its FBS era (since 1999).
The Bulls play at Ohio at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday at CBS Sports Network.
