November is Zach Zwinak’s month.
In seven of the eight games Zwinak has played in the year’s penultimate month, the Penn State junior running back has been the ultimate ground-game weapon.
Eight contests, seven 100-yard games. In 2012, efforts of 134, 141, 135 and 179 yards. In 2013, games of 25, 152, 149 and 149 yards.
Zwinak’s fast and furious finish in 2012 led the Nittany Lions to three victories in four games and allowed him to hit the 1,000-yard rushing landmark right on the nose, with 203 carries and six running touchdowns.
So far in 2013, he has run for 874 yards on 188 carries, including a 35-carry, 149-yard day against Nebraska in the cold of Beaver Stadium last Saturday.
Big yardage is nothing new for No. 28. As a Maryland high school senior in 2009, he ran 164 times for 2,109 yards and 25 touchdowns. But then, as now, Zwinak has learned to take the good with the bad. As a PSU freshman he tore his ACL, then the next season carried just three times for seven yards. Now, he’s back on top.
“Tough kid, tough runner, mentally tough kid, really enjoy coaching him,” said Penn State coach Bill O’Brien this week. “I think he’s ‑‑ he and I have had a lot of talks about ball security and we just try not to get all over him about it every single second of the day.”
Zwinak has lost seven fumbles over the past two seasons. But the stoic red-bearded 240-pounder has no reason to be red-faced. He’s currently gone 17 quarters without losing the ball. In fact, only his six-carry, 25-yard game against Illinois on Nov. 2 of this year mars his perpetual run to November greatness. That contest was the third of a limited 17-carry, 57-yard three-game time-out O’Brien called due to Zwinak’s unfortunate penchant for fumbling at the most inopportune of times.
Otherwise, Zwinak has been The Closer when the season starts coming to a close.
DOWN THE STRETCH ZZ COMES
Down the finishing stretch in the final month of the regular-season, ZZ is nearly tops. Only five Nittany Lions running backs have had a better four-game run to end the regular season than Zwinak did in 2012, when he rushed for 586 yards on 107 carries, with three touchdowns. (And he’s on pace to do even better in 2013.) It is quite a group:
— Larry Johnson Jr. rushed 109 times for 1,073 yards and 10 TDs over the final four games of the 2002 regular season, all in November, against Illinois (279 yards), Virginia (188), Indiana (327) and Michigan State (279). That stretch was the backbone of his school-record 2,087-yard season.
— John Cappelletti used four straight superlative November afternoons to earn the 1973 Heisman Trophy. Cappy’s 140 carries, 787 yards and eight touchdowns included three straight 200-yard games: Maryland (202), N.C. State (220), Ohio University (204) and Pitt (161).
— Ki-Jana Carter made great use of his 81 carries over the final four regular-season games in 1994, rushing for 636 yards and 10 touchdowns in 22 November days: Indiana (192), Illinois (110), Northwestern (107) and Michigan State (227).
— Blair Thomas rushed for 539 yards over four straight November afternoons in 1989, gaining at least 125 yards in each game. But his 1987 performance was better, beginning Oct. 31 and running for a total of 620 yards on 123 carries over four consecutive Saturdays: West Virginia (181), Maryland (138), Pitt (87) and Notre Dame (214).
— Lydell Mitchell had 601 yards on 99 carries and 13 TDs in the last four regular-season contests of 1971: Maryland (209), N.C. State (129), Pitt (181) and Tennessee (82 — a number only historian Lou Prato could locate), a Dec. 4 contest. Mitchell gained 1,567 yards in 1971, No. 2 all-time in the PSU record book.
It could happen again for Zwinak in 2013. He enters the 6-5 Nittany Lions’ game at 9-2 Wisconsin with 450 yards on 87 carries in his past three efforts, against Minnesota (26-152), Purdue (26-149) and Nebraska (35-149). Conceivably, Mitchell, Thomas and maybe even Carter are within reach.
Here’s a record that is well within reach of the stoic red-bearded runner: If Zwinak rushes for 100 yards against Wisconsin, he will become the first player in Penn State’s 127 campaigns to finish out a regular season with four consecutive 100-yard games – twice.
To to repeat repeat: If Zwinak runs for at least 100 yards against Wisconsin, he will have finished two separate regular-seasons with 100-yard games in each of the final four games. And that will be a Penn State record.
STOUT BADGERS
It won’t be easy. The Badgers employ a tricky 3-4 defense, difficult to run against and even tougher to break through. Wisconsin yields, on average, 99.5 yards per game and just 3.1 yards per carry. Only two opponents in 2013 (Ohio State tops, at 193) have rushed for more than 115 yards against the Badgers. Tennessee Tech, Purdue, Northwestern and Illinois ran for 205 yards on 104 carries – combined.
Penn State is not immune to Wisconsin’s historically sharp defense against the run, established under Barry Alvarez, the Badgers’ athletic director and former head coach. Get a load of these PSU ground game performances against Wisconsin since joining the Big Ten: 33 carries for 83 yards (1995), 28 for 45 (2003), 26 for 70 (2004) and 19 for 36 (2006).
“They’re very stout,” O’Brien said. “I think there’s been six games where they haven’t given up a touchdown. But they play a 3‑4 look, which is tough. … What I think is good about them too that is maybe overlooked is they have two really good safeties (Michael Caputo and Dezmen Southward) that support the run really well. They come up and tackle you. If a run breaks to the second level, they’ll tackle you for a three‑yard gain instead of a 10‑yard gain.”
There’s no guarantee that Zwinak will get the 28 carries or the 148 yards that he’s averaged over the last four games of last November and the past three games of this November. Fellow Nittany Lion Bill Belton has had his share of carries in 2013, with 154 carries for 796 yards. However, Belton sat out last week’s Nebraska game with strep throat and a shoulder injury, and had just 128 yards on 26 carries in the two games prior to that.
ZZ picked up the load for BB against the Cornhuskers, with 12 of his 35 carries coming in the first quarter. That sent writers in the press box checking their media guides for the Penn State record for carries in a game. (It’s Cappelletti, with 41 against N.C. State in 1973.)
O’Brien must have sensed that, too, as the Penn State coach only called Zwinak’s number twice (for four yards) in the second quarter. That’s the least carries in a quarter Zwinak’s had over the two-year, seven-game final stretch. The most? The 14 carries for 70 yards he had in the first quarter of the 24-21 season-ending OT win over Wisconsin 2012.
ZWINAK: QUARTER BY QUARTER
Overall, that mirrors how O’Brien distributes Zwinak’s carries. Pound the first quarter, back off markedly in the second, pound the third and then ease off only a bit in the fourth. Over the final four games of 2012 and the past three games of 2013, here’s how Zwinak’s stats break down by quarters and halves:
First quarter – 58 carries (8.3 ave.), 385 yards, 6.6-yard average
Second quarter — 37 carries (5.3 ave.), 174 yards, 4.7-yard average.
First half – 95 carries (13.6 ave.), 559 yards, 5.9-yard average.
Third quarter – 55 carries (7.9 ave.), 282 yards, 5.1-yard average.
Fourth quarter/overtime – 44 carries (6.3 ave.), 239 yards, 5.4-yard average.
Second half – 99 carries (14.1 ave.), 521 yards, 5.3-yard average.
Per game – 27.7 carries, 154.3 yards, 5.6-yard average.
It’s been a tougher run for Zwinak in 2013 than it was in 2012, dating back to April and the Blue-White Game, when he broke his wrist early in the first quarter.
“Zach’s had a good year. He’s a mentally tough kid,” O’Brien said. “Remember now back in the spring he broke his wrist in the spring game and he rehabbed all summer. So he really couldn’t lift weights, especially his upper body. He couldn’t bench press, couldn’t do the things some of the movement exercises that Fitzy (strength coach Craig Fitzgerald) does. So he came in and he started off a little bit slow, but he’s had a good year for us. He’s got a chance to gain 1,000 yards again.”
Penn State’s all-time leading rusher Evan Royster had three 1,000-yard seasons. Six other Nittany Lions had two – Cappelletti, Carter, Thomas, Curt Warner, Tony Hunt, and Curtis Enis.
With 126 yards on Saturday, Zwinak could have two, too. It is, after all, still November.
Related Content:
Bill O’Brien’s Penn State Football On-the-Field Thanksgiving List
Penn State Football: Bill O’Brien’s Thanksgiving Day Message of Family, Team and Gratitude
Penn State Football: Attendance Ranked No. 5 Nationally In 2013
