Navy sophomore quarterback Keenan Reynolds rushed for two touchdowns in Monday's Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl to become just the fourth player in FBS history with 30 rushing TDs in a season.
Reynolds scored on runs of 1 and 3 yards in helping the Midshipmen (9-4) beat Middle Tennessee State (8-5) 24-6 in Fort Worth, Texas. The two scores gave him 31 rushing touchdowns; the other three to reach the 30-TD plateau are Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders (37 in 1987), Wisconsin's Montee Ball (33 in 2011) and Colorado State's Kapri Bibbs (31 this season). Reynolds' 31 rushing TDs are an NCAA single-season record for a quarterback.
Reynolds, who rushed for 1,346 yards this season, already is being mentioned as a potential Heisman dark-horse candidate next season. In 2014, he will run behind a line that returns all five starters, but he will have to share carries with five backs that rushed for between 339 and 420 yards this season.
Reynolds threw for just 19 yards Monday, but he led a Navy ground attack that rolled up 366 yards. Nine Midshipmen had rushing attempts and all nine rushed for at least 12 yards.
The strong rushing game helped Navy control the ball for 36 minutes, 56 seconds.
MTSU was held to just 309 total yards, its fourth-lowest output of the season. MTSU came in on a five-game winning streak in which the Blue Raiders had averaged 42.6 points and 523.4 yards per game.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
