The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
11.30.2016 | Football
Texas junior RB D’Onta Foreman has elected to leave school early and enter the 2017 NFL Draft.
Foreman quotes
AUSTIN – Texas junior RB D'Onta Foreman has elected to forego his senior season and enter the 2017 NFL Draft, he announced at a press conference Wednesday.
Foreman became the second Longhorn in school history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, totaling 2,028 yards on the ground in just 11 games. He rushed for at least 124 yards in all 11 contests and has totaled a school-record 13 straight games of 100 yards or more. Foreman averaged 184.4 yards per game, the 10th-best mark in NCAA history.
Of the players in NCAA history with 2,000 yards rushing before Heisman Trophy voting – a list that includes names such as Barry Sanders, Marcus Allen, LaDainian Tomlinson, Ricky Williams and more – seven of 10 have won the Doak Walker Award, five have won the Heisman Trophy and another five have been Heisman Trophy finalists.
The Texas City, Texas native rushed for 150 yards seven times in 2016, including three games with at least 250 yards. No other running back had more than one 250-yard game against a Power Five opponent. All 11 games he played in this season came against Power 5 opponents. He averaged 193.3 yards per game against Big 12 Conference foes, totaling 1,740 yards and 12 touchdowns in nine league games.
Perhaps his best football came in a four-game stretch when he rushed for 1,008 yards on 151 carries in a span of 22 days. The stretch began against Baylor, who entered the game undefeated and ranked inside the top 10. Foreman totaled a career-high 250 yards on 32 carries and two touchdowns against the Bears to knock them from the ranks of the unbeaten. The very next week, Foreman rushed 33 times for 341 yards – third-most in school history and the most in the country this season. He became just the third player in school history, and first since Hodges Mitchell in 2000, to rush for at least 200 yards in back-to-back games.
Following a 167-yard performance against West Virginia, Foreman once again hit the 250-yard mark on the road at Kansas. His 250 yards in the game against the Jayhawks came on a school-record 51 carries.
The first Longhorn since Jamaal Charles in 2007 with more than 1,000 yards rushing in a season, Foreman is a finalist for the prestigious Doak Walker Award and also a semifinalist for The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award.
He began the season against No. 10 Notre Dame, rushing 24 times for 131 yards and a game-tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter. After missing a game against UTEP – the Longhorns' only Group of 5 opponent – Foreman was back on the field against California. Despite splitting carries prior to Chris Warren III's season-ending injury at OSU, Foreman racked up 157 yards and two touchdowns against the Golden Bears.
As the Longhorns' season moved into conference play, Foreman began with a 148-yard and two touchdown effort, despite missing the last 20 minutes of the game against Oklahoma State due to an injury. The next week, while nursing an injury, the junior nearly led the Longhorns to a victory in the Red River Showdown against Oklahoma. Despite UT coming up short, Foreman had 159 yards and two scores on 25 carries.
Over the final seven games of the season, Foreman would receive 30 carries or more six times, including setting a new career high in four straight games. He totaled 278 attempts in nine Big 12 Conference games.
Foreman rushed for 100 yards in all 11 games in 2016, tying Earl Campbell's school record for most 100-yard games in a season. His 13 straight 100-yard games leads the nation and broke Campbell's school record, previously set during his 1977 Heisman Trophy-winning campaign. He had a streak of seven consecutive games with a rushing touchdown come to an end against Kansas State. It was tied for the 10th-longest streak in school history.
