(UHND.com) — On Saturday night Darius Walker ran for a career high 186 yards and a game winning touchdown. On Tuesday he was named USA Today’s College Football Player of the Week as voted on by USA Today writers and a fan vote.
Walker started the season off with four straight 100 yard games before going another 4 games without eclipsing the century mark, but has rebounded with three straight 100 yard performances including his career day against Stanford.
Running over, around, and through Stanford tacklers on Saturday, Walker had several big gains including a season long 38 yarder while adding another 55 yards in the receiving game.
The crowning moment of Walker’s performance came with the Irish trailing by a point and facing a 2nd and goal from the six yard line. Walker got the handoff from Quinn and burst through the hole for about 4 yards and then bulled his way into the end zone for the go ahead score.
Walker’s night didn’t end with his sixth touchdown of the season however. The Irish went for two with Walker taking a direct snap out of the shotgun and walking into the end zone rather effortlessly. His performance pushed him well over 1,000 yards on the season with 1,106 yards.
Also up the for the player of the week from USA Today this week were Grambling quarterback Bruce Eugene who threw for 418 yards and 6 touchdowns in the Bayou Classic, Adrian Peterson from Oklahoma who ran for 237 yards after a slow start with runs of 71 and 84 yards, West Virginia quarterback Pat White who ran for 2 touchdowns and threw another in the Backyard Brawl, and NC State defensive end Mario Williams who collected 4 sacks.
Fellow Domer Jeff Samardzija was also nominated for the ABC/Cingular Player of the Week award with 8 catches for a career high 191 yards and two touchdowns giving him 15 for the season which leads the NCAA.
