Texas Football: Revisiting D’Onta Foreman’s dominant stretch in 2016

There was a torrid four-game stretch that former Texas football running back posted historic production through back in 2016.

Back in 2016, the Texas football program was in flux under the wing of former head coach Charlie Strong. Texas struggled under Strong’s direction, especially in 2016. There were certainly very talented parts of the roster, but the pieces just never clicked in place during his coaching tenure on the Forty Acres. The 2016 campaign would be the final year with Strong as the Longhorns head coach.

Texas rounded up with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), including a dismal three-game losing streak to end the season. That would mark three losing records in three tries for Strong as the Longhorns head coach. He was only bowl eligible in one season with Texas, his first back in 2014. And the Longhorns were catapulted by the Arkansas Razorbacks by the final score of 31-7 in the Texas Bowl.

Nonetheless, the Longhorns did have a lot of talent on that 2016 roster that resulted in fairly early NFL Draft picks in the following years. Running back D’Onta Foreman, linebacker Malik Jefferson, and safety DeShon Elliott highlighted that 2016 team. Although Foreman was the only Longhorn of those three to leave early for the NFL Draft after the 2016 campaign, and prior to current head coach Tom Herman taking the reigns in place of Strong.

Moreover, getting Foreman back in 2017 would’ve made a massive difference for what was a thin Longhorns backfield. The ice he was on near the end of the 2016 season was nothing short of scorching hot. Even though Texas lost their last three games of the 2016 campaign, Foreman was one of the nation’s best running backs. He did enough down the stretch in 2016 to finish in the top eight of the Heisman voting, while being a part of a team with a losing record and not playing at quarterback.

It all started for Foreman down the stretch in 2016 when the Longhorns pulled off a sizable upset over the Baylor Bears. That was the seventh game Foreman played in that season. In that win over Baylor, Foreman went over the 200 rushing yard mark for the first time that season. He wound up tallying up 250 rushing yards and two scores on the ground, while averaging just shy of eight yards per carry.

And this was only the beginning of what was to come to Foreman.

In the most insane outburst of his career (and the best individual game rushing performance in the Big 12 since 2015), Foreman went off in a solid road win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders the week after Texas beat Baylor. Foreman registered 341 rushing yards and three rushing scores in a one possession win over the Red Raiders, while averaging a double-digit number of yards per carry.

You could easily say that Foreman’s play in the matchups against Baylor and Texas Tech were the driving force in the last two wins that Strong would have as Texas head coach.

Although, the week after the big win over Texas Tech, the Longhorns would come back down to earth. While Foreman did register 199 total yards from scrimmage, Texas would fall short against the top-20 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers at home.

But that didn’t stop Foreman from breaking through again, despite a horrifying Longhorns loss, against the Kansas Jayhawks. Foreman had a whopping 51 carries in that loss to Kansas, for 250 yards and two touchdowns. The Texas passing game couldn’t get anything going and Kansas would upend the Longhorns in a thoroughly embarrassing defeat.

Even in the regular season finale, Foreman was solid. He registered 165 rushing yards while averaging more than five yards per carry in a home loss to the TCU Horned Frogs. That amounted to a total number of 2,028 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on the season.

This was the first 2,000-rushing yard season by any Longhorns running back since Ricky Williams won the Heisman Trophy in 1998. The accomplished season for Foreman was overshadowed by the losing record and Strong’s departure, but that shouldn’t take away from the greatness he bestowed on the fan base during this torrid four-game stretch in Big 12 play.

Foreman wound up with more than 1,000 rushing yards and seven rushing scores in just this four-game stretch. That’s a better stat line than a lot of running backs will find throughout an entire season. He was tops in the Big 12 in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in 2016, and he was second in the NCAA in yards.