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September 27, 2012

Denham continues to rack up the yards

By Nathan Hutchinson Register Sports Editor

RICHMOND — In a relatively short amount of time, running back Matt Denham has built a rather impressive resume.

The EKU senior has started just a dozen games in his college career, still he’s already racked up more than 2,400 yards and is in position to become one of the school’s all-time rushing leaders in the next couple of weeks.

“He’s real humble,” EKU senior quarterback Matt Denham said. “He’s a great guy. You really don’t think he has that many yards until the end of the game. Every play he just racks up the yards.”

In the past year, Denham has been a consistently dominant force for the Colonels’ run-oriented offense.

The senior has rushed for at least 121 yards in 11 of the past 12 games and he’s averaged 155.6 yards a game since he was inserted into the starting lineup last season at Eastern Illinois (Oct. 8, 2011).

Five times in the past 12 games he’s rushed for more 200 yards in a game, including a 218-yard performance last weekend against Jacksonville State.

So far this season, Denham leads the OVC in rushing yards (138 yards a game, which also ranks eighth nationally among Football Championship Subdivision players) is averaging six yards a carry and has seven touchdowns (five rushing, two receiving).

“The offensive line is key to everything,” Denham said after the win over Jacksonville State.

Denham had three touchdowns against Jacksonville State — two rushing and one receiving — as the Colonels rolled to a 51-21 win. The senior had 131 yards just in the first half in that victory.

But, that’s not unusual.

Denham has thrashed opposing defenses in the opening two quarters of games, averaging 95.75 yards a game before halftime in the past 12 games.

He’s rushed for more than 100 yards by halftime five times during that span (131 yards last week against JSU) and has rushed for more than 80 yards by the half nine times.

Denham goes into this weekend’s game at UT-Martin with 2,401 career yards. He is just 386 yards away from passing Alfred Thompson (1970-1973, 2,786 yards), who is currently 10th on the school’s all-time rushing list.

At his current pace, the senior All-American has a legitimate chance to pass several others on the all-time rushing list as well, including Terence Thompson (1980-1983, 3,015 yards), Corey Crume (1997-2000, 3,124) and Everett Talbert (1973-1976, 3,138).

Foster likely out

Xavier Foster will likely not play Saturday against UT-Martin. The senior running back is battling some nagging injuries, none of which are considered serious.

So far this season, Foster has 162 yards rushing and one touchdown on 38 carries (second-most on the team). He had a 6-yard touchdown run in the win over Morehead State on Sept. 8.

Early wake-up call

The Colonels will have to get up a little extra early on Saturday.

This weekend’s game at UT-Martin will actually start at 11 a.m. local time to accommodate Fox College Sports, which will broadcast the game.

“It will be a challenge,” EKU senior safety Cejay Ceniza said. “But, we get up at 6 a.m. for meetings and stuff like that. So, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The game is scheduled for noon Eastern time, but Martin, Tenn. is in the Central Time Zone.

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