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LOGAN — Utah State football player Robert Turbin’s performance in USU’s wild 49-42 double overtime win over Idaho Saturday garnered several national honors for the junior running back.
Turbin was named the National Running Back of the Week by collegefootballperformance.com, the Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week by College Sports Madness and was nominated for the Running Back Performance of the Year by Intersport.
Turbin, a native of Fremont, Calif. (Irvington HS), rushed for a career-high 208 yards with three TDs, including two in OT, with the second being the game-winner in USU’s crazy victory over the Vandals. The 208 yards are the second-most in the most in the WAC this season, 1 yard behind the top spot, and Turbin now has two of the top five rushing outings on the year.
Turbin scored his first TD on an 80-yard scamper on USU’s fourth possession of the game, giving the Aggies a 21-7 lead. After Idaho forced OT and scored first, Turbin scored his second TD on a 1-yard plunge on fourth-and-goal to force the second OT. USU got the ball first in the second extra session and Turbin hit the endzone from 3 yards out and USU’s defense intercepted Idaho’s fourth-and-goal play to seal the win.
Turbin went over 3,000 yards for his career and broke USU’s single-season rushing TD, single-season total TD, single-season scoring and the Aggies’ career scoring records on Saturday.
His three TDs give him a total of 296 points for his career, breaking the USU Career Points record of 284 points held by former placekicker Brad Bohn (1997-2000) with 284 points.
Turbin also broke USU’s single-season rushing TD record, as his three on Saturday give him 19 on the year, breaking away from a tie with Abu Wilson (1996), who had the previous record of 16.
The three TDs also set a new USU single-season total TDs record, as Turbin now has 21 on the season, breaking his own record of 18 he set in 2009. Furthermore, Turbin also broke his own USU single-season scoring record — he now has 126 points —breaking his 2009 record of 110.
Turbin also became just the fifth Aggie RB to rush for over 3,000 career yards, and the first since Demario Brown (1996-99), who is the school rushing record-holder with 4,053. Turbin is the 26th WAC running back to reach the 3,000-yard plateau, and he has now broken into the Top 25 on the WAC’s rushing list.
The goal of College Football Performance Awards is to provide the most scientifically rigorous conferments in college football. Recipients are selected exclusively based upon objective scientific rankings of the extent to which individual players increase the overall effectiveness of their teams.
College Sports Madness covers all aspects of college sports — from recruiting right up through the draft.
The Intersport Running Back Performance of the Year is part of a four-month competition that lets fans determine which individual performances reign supreme during the 2011 college football season. The winners will be revealed during the two hour All-Star Football Challenge special airing at 5 p.m. on Feb. 3 on ESPN2.
The Aggies return home to the friendly confines of Merlin Olsen Field at Romney Stadium to host Nevada on Saturday at noon.
To purchase tickets, or for more Aggie Athletics ticket information, fans can contact the USU Ticket Office at 1-888-USTATE-1 or 435-797-0305, in person at the USU Ticket Office inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, or online 24 hours a day at www.utahstateaggies.com.
Fans can follow the Aggie football program (@USUFootball) and Aggie athletic program (@USUAthletics) on Twitter. Fans can also follow the USU football blog at usufootball.wordpress.com.
Doug Hoffman is the assistant athletic director for Utah State University.
