Leon Allen named Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week

It should come as no surprise that today, Conference USA announced that Leon Allen was named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week, making it back-to-back weeks a Hilltopper has won the honor.

Allen had a record breaking day, as he rushed for 345 yards against Army, setting a new C-USA rushing record, and 197 of those yards came on nine third quarter carries alone, on his way to 250 second half yards. The previous C-USA record was set by Matt Forte in 2007, when his Tulane Green Wave played SMU and the now Bears back rushed for 342 yards. Allen also rewrote the WKU history books, breaking Eddie Thompson’s record of 309 yards in a single game against Southern Illinois in 1992.

The 33 carries Allen had also set a career high, and he became the 12th player in WKU history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season. Currently, Leon stands at 1,185 rushing yards which is currently third in Conference USA (behind Devon Johnson and Aaron Jones) and 13th in Hilltoppers’ history. Lets put Allen’s day into perspective for you – the most Antonio Andrews ever rushed for in a single game was 238 against ULL (11/17/12), while Bobby Rainey’s career high was 248 in 2010 against MTSU.

Allen’s inclusion this week on the weekly honor marks the sixth time a Hilltopper has been honored (Brandon Doughty trice and Wonderful Terry twice), which leads the conference among it’s member institutions. Not bad for the new kids on the block. (Hey! Homecoming reference!)

Joining Allen this week was Davidson Colimon of FIU (Defensive Player of the Week), who had a 79-yard pick six on the Panthers’ way to keeping MTSU from getting to the six win mark (thanks!) and Sean Ianno of UTSA (Special Teams), who the Tops will see on Saturday. He booted the game winning field goal to…lift?…the Runners over Southern Miss.