Buffalo Running Back Jaret Patterson may have been a player many fans knew nothing about participating in the 2020 college football season. But as we get to the end of it, his name needs to be mentioned to tell the full story of the year.
Patterson, a junior, caught the sport’s attention on Nov. 28 against Kent State when he tied the FBS record for hasty touchdowns in a game with eight and had the second-highest single-game rushing total with 409 yards in a 70-41 win.
He’s come a long way since visiting Eastern Michigan as a high school sophomore, when his twin brother, James, found him crying in a campus bathroom after being the only one on their recruiting visit not to get an offer. Now Jaret Patterson is one of the best players in Buffalo history, alongside guys like Branden Oliver and Khalil Mack.
As Patterson and Buffalo (5-1) go into a match on Christmas Day with Marshall (7-2) in the Camellia Bowl (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN and the ESPN app), let’s take a closer look at the Bulls star breakout.
Big games are Patterson’s specialty
As a senior at St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel, Maryland, he did a little bit of everything in a 2016 game against Riverside Baptist, good for 558 universal yards, one interception and two forced fumbles.
“You can ask anyone in and around Maryland,” Patterson said. “They know this game.”
His talent translated seamlessly at Buffalo. In 15 of the 28 games in which he has carried the ball 11 or more times, he has run more than 100 meters. And in more than half of them, he has run at least 160 meters.
In 2019 – a season where he ran 1,799 yards and 19 touchdowns, and put together 209 yards with a different score – he went on a hasty and scoring blowout with Toledo and Bowling Green. Against the Rockets, Patterson had 227 scrimmage yards and five touchdowns; he took on the Falcons and had 298 rush yards and six touchdowns.
“In those two games alone, that’s 11 touchdowns. That’s a whole season for some,” he said. “This is no fluke.”
There is to be a good football player, and there is to be overwhelmingly good. Patterson is often the last.
In the Bahamas Bowl 2019, he drove the Bulls to the program’s first bowl victory with 173 yards and two touchdowns against Charlotte.
“The fourth quarter was coming and those guys were just tired and we made our will,” said Patterson.
He recalled Charlotte coach Will Healy approaching him after the game, being impressed and saying, “You only get stronger as the game goes on.”
Postgame and even midgame praise has become the norm for Patterson. Whether it’s in between games or to the line of scrimmage, guys from both Bowling Green and Kent State have called him out to stop running the ball or even suggest the Bulls pass.
“They know it’s coming, but they have to stop it at the end of the day,” said Patterson. “Sometimes they can’t.”
Patterson went into the game against the Golden Flashes in search of revenge. When the two teams played in 2019, the Bulls were up 27-6 in the fourth quarter, only to allow 24 unanswered points, including a game-winning field goal as time went on to lose 30-27. Patterson ran 141 meters in that race.
Early in the 2020 matchup, Patterson knew he was going to have a good game, but he didn’t know how good.
“I was untouched for the first few touchdowns,” he said. “I mean the holes were so big you could drive a truck through them.”
At halftime, Patterson said he had a moment where he quit and knew he was doing something big.
“I didn’t know the number, but I knew I was running pretty well and I scored a lot,” he said.
Many college football fans were upset when Bulls coach Lance Leipold Patterson pulled out before breaking the touchdown record. After the game, Leipold said, “I didn’t even know he had eight touchdowns. I wish I had known a little bit.”
Patterson only became aware of what he had done after he was taken out of the game, and said he had no problem not getting the record. Patterson and Leipold have even joked about it ever since.
Patterson even labeled that game as ‘easy’, crediting his offensive line.
“Without those guys in front, I wouldn’t run for 1,000 yards in five races,” said Patterson. “That is unheard of. Even the perimeter receivers, everyone plays a part in this. You see the long runs, guys who make an effort to finish defenders, everyone plays a part in this.”
He added, “I don’t see a better sentence than those guys and what they did. I feel their resume speaks for itself.”
Awards or not, Patterson knows he’s one of the best RBs in the country
The Doak Walker Award finalists were announced on Tuesday, and he wasn’t one of them. He was also not among the finalists of the Heisman Trophy. But Patterson knows he belongs.
In a season where rules have been made and thrown out the window, one thing hasn’t changed is Patterson’s ability to create statistics at an overwhelming pace for the defense. And he got his 1,072 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns in just five games, something he still points out when arguing for why he should be in these price talks.
“Just like I did it, it was different from the others,” said Patterson. “Don’t take away – those guys definitely put on numbers themselves – but just like I did it consecutively. Guys don’t score eight touchdowns and run 300 yards in a row. But I think the two biggest things are just the short games and what time we do. I think that’s why I should definitely be a contender. “
Since all Heisman votes have been cast by the time Patterson gets a chance to play on Christmas Day, his Camellia Bowl stats will not contribute to his cause. But he will still be playing with that chip on his shoulder for the rest of his career.
“If it comes back in the fall, or goes to the NFL, I’ll still have that chip, I’ll still be the same player,” said Patterson, who turned 21 this week. “Nothing is going to change. That’s something I stick to, that’s my moral, and whether it’s at Buffalo or the next level, I’ll still have that motivation to prove people wrong and that I’m right. that I can be a great runner back in college and to the next level. ”