Piling up rushing yards is nothing new for Elon freshman Kamerin McDowell-Moore.
He did it for four years at Tarboro High School, where he rushed for 6,360 yards and 96 touchdowns, topped 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns in every season and helped the Vikings win two state championships.
Now he’s doing it at Elon.
McDowell-Moore rushed for a career-high 273 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries Saturday in Elon’s 30-23 loss at New Hampshire. The performance set an Elon freshman record and was the fourth-highest single-game rushing total in program history.
On Monday, the CAA named McDowell-Moore its Offensive Player of the Week — already the third conference weekly honor of his young college career.
His 273 yards were the most by a freshman at any level of college football this season and the second-most by an FCS player in a game this year.
For anyone who watched McDowell-Moore at Tarboro, his immediate success might not be particularly surprising.
As a senior, the 6-foot, 183-pound running back rushed for 2,184 yards and 31 touchdowns on just 181 carries – an average of 12.1 yards per attempt – while leading Tarboro to a 15-0 season and a state championship. He finished his high school career among the top 25 rushers in North Carolina history.
McDowell-Moore received FBS offers from Charlotte, Old Dominion and Kennesaw State, according to 247Sports. His FCS offers included several in-state programs, including Gardner-Webb, Campbell and North Carolina Central.
So far as a freshman at Elon, McDowell-Moore has rushed for 754 yards on 111 carries — an average of 6.8 yards per attempt — with six touchdowns.
Those numbers put him among the top running backs in the FCS. McDowell-Moore ranks fifth nationally in both rushing yards (754) and rushing yards per game (125.7). He is the only freshman among the top five in either category.
He rushed for 117 yards against Rhode Island on Sept. 12, then went for 126 yards and two touchdowns against Maine on Sept. 26 before his breakout performance at New Hampshire.
The Phoenix couldn’t turn McDowell-Moore’s record-setting afternoon into a victory Saturday. Early turnovers helped put Elon in a 10-0 hole, but the Phoenix battled back and had an opportunity to tie the game in the final minute.
Elon drove to the New Hampshire 7-yard line and appeared to score on an Elijah Guttman pass to Kenaz McMillian. The touchdown was overturned following replay review, however, and the Phoenix threw incomplete on their final snap.
Elon (4-2, 2-2 CAA) returns home Saturday, Oct. 10, to face Wofford for homecoming. The Phoenix will then play at Stanford on Oct. 17 before closing out the season with conference games against North Carolina A&T, Hampton, Campbell and Towson.
The Stanford game has been set for 7:30 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra. The homecoming game against Wofford starts at 2 p.m.
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