If Saturday's New Mexico Bowl performance was the first time you'd seen Colorado State tailback Kapri Bibbs this season, you saw him turn in one of his most impressive performances in a season that had a few of them.
Despite playing with turf toe, Bibbs (5-foot-11, 203 pounds) -- a third-year sophomore -- ran for 169 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries as the Rams (8-6) rallied for an improbable 48-45 win over Washington State (6-7). Colorado State trailed by 15 with just under three minutes left but won it on a last-play field goal in regulation thanks to two Washington State fumbles.
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Bibbs scored on two 1-yard runs as well as a 75-yard run. The three TDs gave him 31 rushing touchdowns this season; he is just the third player to reach that plateau in a season in NCAA history, joining Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders (37 in 1987) and Wisconsin's Montee Ball (33 in 2011). It was Bibbs' eighth game this season with at least three rushing TDs and his sixth 100-yard outing of the season.
He also has rushed for a school-record 1,741 yards despite not becoming the starter until the sixth game. In his eight starts, he scored 25 rushing TDs and had five 100-yard games.
Bibbs, who has been clocked as fast as 4.45 seconds in the 40, has become a draft prospect with his performance this season. Depending on which underclass running backs go pro, he could head into the 2014 season as one of the nation's top dozen or so backs.
Bibbs was a three-star prospect out of high school in the Chicago suburbs and chose Colorado State in the summer of 2010, before his senior season, over offers from Toledo and FCS member Illinois State. He had a big senior season received more recruiting attention as the season played out, including interest from UCLA and Pitt, but he remained a Rams commitment.
Bibbs had academic issues and ended up at Snow College in Utah for the 2011 season. He attended classes but did not play football at Front Range CC in Fort Collins, Colo., last fall and enrolled at Colorado State in January 2013.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
