Deontae Cooper’s name might be on this list (twice in fact) and we’ve talked about Spider Gaines a little already as well, but they’re far from being the only Huskies with cool names to be included among the elite who ran for a lot of yards but no score on a specific play.
That’s right, we’re still talking about the longest running plays in Washington Husky football history and now we’re talking about Napoleon Kaufman (what an absolutely incredible name, by the way, we don’t talk about how amazing that name is) and a 70 yard run against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the early 1990’s.
33 years ago, in 1992 (during Kaufman’s sophomore season with the WAshington Huskies), UW was taking on Arizona State. And Kaufman had one heck of a game. On six carries, Kaufman managed to gain 159 yards against the Sun Devils.
That’s just flat out absurd.
Washington football history: Napoleon Kaufman torched Arizona State for 70 yards on a single carry back in 1992
Given that 70 of those 159 yards came on one carry, it’s safe to say that Kaufman’s yards per carry average went up a fair bit thanks to this play. And you can certainly bet that it helped increase that same sort of average across the entirety of the season.
Also worth noting, this was one of a few plays that really helped establish Kaufman’s reputation as being a home run threat on any given play. Except, well, he didn’t exactly get into the end zone. So… Yeah. Anyways, this 70-yard carry without a touchdown did help Kaufman get to his first of three consecutive seasons in which he ran for 1,000 yards.
That’s pretty impressive, if you ask me.
With this really long run that didn’t end up in a touchdown, Kaufman is currently tied with Deontae Cooper for No. 7 on the list of longest runs without a score in Washington Husky football history. Again, weird list to be on, but it’s a fun list.