Record leg day gets bowl season started
CONWAY, S.C. — Camerun Peoples and Appalachian State began college football’s virus-affected bowl season with arecord-breaking show at the Myrtle Beach Bowl on Monday.
Peoples ran for a bowl-record 319 yards and tied another mark with five rushing touchdowns to lead the Mountaineers past North Texas 56-28.
“This is probably one of the most memorable football games I’ve ever played,” Peoples said.
The sophomore surpassed the 307 yards rushing of Georgia Tech’s PJ Daniels in the 2004 Humanitarian Bowl.
Peoples also became the seventh player to run for that many scores in a bowl game, a list that includes Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders and Toledo’s Kareem Hunt.
The Mountaineers (9-3) also remained a perfect 6-0 in bowls since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014.
Peoples wasn’t aware he was close to those milestones. He was told on the sideline in the fourth quarter he was nearing 300 yards and the rushing marks for Appalachian State and a bowl game. Peoples looked at Coach Shawn Clark.
“Coach Clark said, ‘Yeah, you’re not coming out of the game,’ ” said Peoples, named the inaugural bowl’s MVP.
North Texas (4-6) of Conference USA fell behind 28-7 and had no answer for Peoples or the Appalachian State rushing game, which finished with 508 yards.
The Appalachian State coach was grateful for the opportunity for some normalcy at the end of a fretful season in which games were canceled, postponed and rescheduled every week.
Clark said his team’s two days at the Grand Strand resort area were “the most fun I’ve seen our players have in the last six months.”
The Mountaineers kept the good times rolling come kickoff.
Tight end Henry Pearson had first-half TD catches of 22 and 11 yards before Appalachian State put things out of reach with a 70-yard TD run by Marcus Williams Jr. and Peoples’ 64-yard burst to the end zone. The Mountaineers led 35-14 at the half.
Peoples piled on with a 62-yard scoring run in the third quarter. He finished the period with a 76-yard run, but was caught just shy of the end zone. No matter. Peoples went in from a yard out.
He added an 11-yard touchdown run around the left side in the final period. Peoples was still running hard with a 7-yard gain midway through the fourth quarter that moved him atop the NCAA record book for bowl rushing yards.
“If you’re going to give up explosive [plays], you’re going to have a long day,” North Texas Coach Sam Littrell said.