Oct 15 | Football
DENVER, COLORADO -- SMU true freshman running back ShanDerrick Charles was honored today as the Western Athletic Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Week. Charles shared the award with Nevada running back Chance Kretschmer.
Charles ran for 243 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries to lead the Mustangs to a 24-17 win at San Jose State last Saturday. The Port Arthur, Texas native entered the game with only one carry in SMU's first four games and did not get his first carry of the day until early in the second quarter. He finished a yard shy of the school single game record of 244 set by Mike Richardson against Texas A&M in 1968 and broke Jeff Atkins' freshman single game record of 218 yards.
"ShanDerrick is certainly deserving of this honor," said SMU head coach Mike Cavan. "When somebody goes down, someone else gets a chance to step up and that is exactly what happened last weekend. Keylon (Kincade) had been pretty good in the first four games but in his absence, ShanDerrick stepped up and had a great game. The line was able to open some holes and ShanDerrick hit them, then made some things happen."
Charles played a key role in all three of SMU's scoring drives in the game. His 39-yard run to the San Jose State one set up SMU's first touchdown and his 49-yard run in the third period set up a field goal that gave the Mustangs the lead for good. He scored on a one-yard run to extend SMU's lead to 24-14 with 12:11 remaining.
Charles had three runs of at least 25 yards in the contest. After not carrying in the first quarter, he ran seven times for 87 yards in the second period, nine times for 102 yards in the third and 10 times for 54 yards in the fourth.
Kretschmer ran for 242 yards on 31 carries and scored a touchdown in Nevada's 45-42 loss to Louisiana Tech.
