A showdown between the two most prolific running backs in the Mountain West Conference turned out to be no contest.
TKO, Rashaad Penny.
With caps lock set to on, Penny chiseled his name on the venerable list of San Diego State running backs to go off on Hawaii, rushing for a career-high 253 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-7 win for the visitors on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.
Penny, a 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior and the successor to FBS rushing record-holder Donnel Pumphrey, busted out of a two-game slump to average 8.4 yards on 30 carries.
That was in stark contrast to UH’s Diocemy Saint Juste, who was held to a season-low 40 yards on 17 attempts. Saint Juste entered the game fourth in FBS rushing at 156.3 yards per game, while Penny was fifth at 139.4.
Penny said afterward the marquee matchup of backs was far from his mind. Instead, he credited a disciplined mind-set at practices coming off losses to Boise State and Fresno State, a shock to the Aztecs’ system after a 6-0 start. It meant staying off social media all week leading into the game.
“Just practiced harder,” Penny said. “Not saying practice is ever easy, but getting it going, finding ourselves and knowing who we are and what we do. And that’s run the ball, and on defense stop the run and play physical. And I feel like the last two weeks, we played physical but just (weren’t) there mentally. That’s something we take very serious on this team.”
If he ever uses social media again, he might note his performance was infectious.
An ESPN video clip of Penny dragging Jahlani Tavai in his wake for 10 yards — the UH linebacker was prone on the turf, desperately clinging to Penny’s jersey — went viral. It was slugged, “TAKE ME WITH YOUUUUU”.
Penny chuckled recalling the play, a GIF-able moment emblematic of SDSU compiling 334 rushing yards, the most allowed by UH this season.
“When you’re running on the sidelines, your whole teammates are happy and excited,” he said. “So, it’s funny because they all just laughed and talked about it. ‘How much did he charge you for that ride?’ That’s just something we laughed about. It was fun. I enjoyed every single moment.”
It was Penny’s third career 200-yard game, and second of the season. SDSU coach Rocky Long — whose 61st win tied him with Claude Gilbert for second in school history — called Penny a “great player” but said his offensive line’s dominant performance led the way. Defensively, the Aztecs were able to stack players near the line of scrimmage and limit the damage from Saint Juste.
“We want to run the ball, obviously, and Hawaii has changed a little bit and they want to run the ball because they have such a good running back,” Long said. “So we went into the game knowing it was not going to be kind of back and forth, and whoever was going to pop the big one was going to have the advantage.”
Early in the fourth quarter, Penny bolted around the left edge and was gone, 63 yards to the house. He’d scored on a 1-yarder in the third for a two-touchdown lead.
He tacked on a 46-yard scamper into UH territory to cap his night and add his name to the list of Rainbow Warrior tormentors — Marshall Faulk, George Jones, Pumphrey, Penny.
