Nov 25, 2002 4 min read

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) – Larry Johnson’s late-season surge has given him a chance to become a member of another exclusive club. Johnson became the first Penn State back and just the ninth player in NCAA Division I-A to rush for more than 2,000 yards Saturday. The senior ran for 279 yards and four touchdowns on just 19 carries in Penn State’s 61-7 drubbing of Michigan State, giving him 2,015 yards rushing for the season.

His recent success has him right in the middle of the Heisman Trophy hunt. Only one other player in Penn State history has won the award – John Cappelletti in 1973 – and no back has ever run for 2,000 yards on a nine-win team and not won college football’s most prestigious award.

Yet Johnson isn’t even thinking about the Heisman.

“It’s great for today, but this season’s not over,” Johnson said, playing down his own achievements. “We’ve still got the bowl game and stuff like that. Celebrating is good, but the season is still not over.”

Johnson’s Heisman campaign is over because Penn State’s win Saturday was their regular-season finale. But his numbers make a good case for the award.

Even before his performance against Michigan State, Johnson set Penn State single-season records for rushing and all-purpose yards. His 341 receiving yards this season are the most ever by a Nittany Lion running back. And his 8.02 yards per carry are an NCAA record, easily beating the 7.81 yards averaged by Nebraska’s Mike Rozier in 1983 – when Rozier won the Heisman.

“He is one of the best backs I’ve seen in a while,” Michigan State coach Morris Watts said. “He’s a big, strong back, and he had a big ball game.”

Even more impressive is the way Johnson is getting his yards. In the first quarter against the Spartans, he gained 41 yards by reaching the corner and sprinting past the defense. In the second quarter, Johnson scored on an 11-yard run after being stood up by safety Jason Harmon at the 4 – Johnson simply muscled Harmon into the end zone.

A 78-yard touchdown run came when Johnson ran right, found himself in a crowd, cut back left and outran the defense. On his 38-yard score, which put him over the 2,000-yard mark, Johnson somehow found a seam with nine defenders in the box and broke through.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno said the biggest difference for Johnson has been his willingness to let a play develop.

“It was a matter of wait, wait,” Paterno said. “But once he finally got the feel of things, he’s become terrific. On that last touchdown, he waited for a crack to open up. Last year, he would have been fighting to get to the sideline or running over somebody.”

“You can’t play any better than he has the past few games. In fact, you can’t play any better than he has all season.”

The knock against Johnson is that he hasn’t done well against the best competition. Johnson rushed for just 68 yards against Iowa, 78 yards at Michigan and 66 yards at Ohio State – all Penn State losses.

His performance has been somewhat surprising because he wasn’t one of the preseason favorites for the award. He had just 358 yards rushing as a sophomore and 337 yards last year as part of a three-back lineup.

After six games this season, Johnson averaged just over 103 yards per game. Since then, he’s averaged more than 232 yards, but no one really considered him a Heisman contender until the last few weeks.

But Paterno points out that’s exactly how Cappelletti’s season went when he won the trophy.

“Cappelletti almost did exactly what Larry’s done,” Paterno said. “He came on late, and he won it.”