The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Robinson earns AP All-Bowl recognition
01.07.2021 | Football
The freshman running back logged 236 all-purpose yards and led the Longhorns to victory in the Valero Alamo Bowl versus Colorado.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Football true freshman running back Bijan Robinson earned All-Bowl recognition as an all-purpose back from the Associated Press on Thursday.
Robinson earned Alamo Bowl Offensive MVP honors after rushing for 183 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries, and catching two passes for 37 yards and two scores, against the Buffaloes. He also returned a kickoff 16 yards to log a career-high 236 all-purpose yards. The Tucson, Ariz. native's 183 rushing yards were the most ever by a UT freshman, and a Big 12 freshman, in a bowl game. It was the fourth-most rushing yards by a Longhorn in a bowl game, regardless of class, and the sixth-best tally in any game by a Texas freshman. Robinson set a Big 12 bowl-game record by averaging 18.3 yards per carry, a mark that was previously held by Colorado's Cortlen Johnson for 21 years. It was also Robinson's third 100-yard game of the season, tying him for the third-most by a freshman on UT record. He joins Cedric Benson (5 in 2001), Earl Campbell (4 in 1974), Ricky Williams (3 in 1995), Vince Young (3 in 2003), Jamaal Charles (3 in 2005) and Malcolm Brown (3 in 2011) as the only players in school history to log three 100-yard rushing games as a freshman.
In the Alamo Bowl, Robinson tallied five explosive plays (20-plus yards) from scrimmage, logging runs of 21, 27, 50 and 66 yards, and hauling in a 23-yard touchdown pass. His 66-yard run was the second-longest by a Longhorn in a bowl game, while his 50-yarder tied for fifth. Robinson became only the fourth Longhorn to record a rushing and receiving touchdown in a bowl game over the last 20 seasons against Colorado, and his two receiving touchdowns were tied for the school's bowl-game record. No Longhorn running back had ever caught multiple touchdown passes in a bowl game prior to Robinson.
The Valero Alamo Bowl capped an impressive freshman campaign for Robinson, who tallied 703 rushing yards on just 86 carries to break the school's single-season yards per carry average record at 8.2. The previous record (7.9) was set by UT great James Saxton during the 1961 season. He amassed a team-high 915 all-purpose yards (703 rush/196 rec/16 KR) during the 2020 season, making him the first freshman to lead the Longhorns in all-purpose yards since Cedric Benson in 2001.
