With 25 seconds remaining on the clock Saturday at the University of Utah, Colorado State junior tailback Tony Alford hit the left side of the line and picked up 15 yards - running his total to a school-record 242 yards.
And that was with 25 seconds remaining in the first half. While he couldn't quite match that total in the final two quarters, all Alford did was set a new WAC rushing record of 310 yards.But in the wake of the Rams' 50-10 annihilation of the Utes, Alford said the records didn't mean that much.
"Honestly, not really," he said. "I just wanted to win so bad.
"It'll be something I can look back on and tell my kids about. But that's a long way off."
But while Alford will certainly spend a lot of time remembering this game, Utah will be doing its best to forget. Even when the Utes could stop Alford for a play or two, he always managed to break free.
"He got big ones, little ones - he got some very big runs," said CSU Coach Earle Bruce.
Some very big ones indeed. Alford scored three touchdowns on runs of 54, 42 and 63 yards - all in the first half (another CSU record). He added runs of 40, 17, 15, and two of 12. He caught a pass for 10 yards.
All of which didn't do much for Bruce's grind-'em-out, ball-control offense.
"That's OK," Bruce said with a smile. "Just so we put some points on the board.
Alford's 320 yards in total offense were nine more than the entire Ute offense could come up with.
His 310 yards rushing ties for 22nd on the all-time NCAA list, and ran his season total to 934 yards with two games left to play.
And while the yards were piling up, so were the records. With 4:39 remaining in the first quarter, Alford already had 102 yards - his fifth 100-yard day this season. Five carries later, he was well past the 200-yard mark. And then his school record just before the half.
But things slowed down somewhat after the intermission. Midway through the fourth quarter, Bruce came to Alford on the sidelines, told him he was near the WAC record and asked if he wanted to go for it.
"I just said, yeah, let's do it," Alford said. And a few carries later, the mark set by Wyoming's Kevin Lowe (302 yards) against South Dakota State was erased.
All this on a twisted left ankle, which he injured in the first quarter.
"If you can still run, you can play," Alford said of the injury. "I couldn't really feel it when I was going full out. It hurt more when I was just walking."
Unfortunately for the Utes, Alford spent much of the afternoon going full out.