Travis Jason Prentice (born October 27, 1976) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

who played collegiately at Miami of Ohio. Prentice held the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...

record for career rushing touchdowns until it was broken by

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

's Montee Ball in 2012, and again by Keenan Reynolds of

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...

in 2015.

High school career

Prentice attended

duPont Manual High School duPont Manual High School is a public magnet high school located in the Old Louisville neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It serves students in grades 9– 12. It is a part of the Jefferson County Public School District. DuPo ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana borde ...

, where he was first team All-District and second team All-State his senior year while running for 1,510 yards and 17 touchdowns.

College career

Prentice was

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his freshman year. The next year, Prentice had a very productive season even though he never broke into the starting line-up. In his first game, he ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns; for the season he ran for 601 yards on 123 carries and 12 touchdowns. In his sophomore year, Prentice earned a spot in Randy Walker's starting line-up and rushed for 1549 yards and 25 touchdowns. He was named first team All-

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twe ...

and was one of eight semifinalists for the

Doak Walker Award Since 1990 the Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. It is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Football Lea ...

. In Prentice's junior year he ran for 1787 yards and 19 touchdowns while leading the RedHawks to a 10–1 season. Once again he was one of eight semifinalists for the

. He was edged by

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an ...

Chad Pennington James Chadwick Pennington (born June 26, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football at Marshall, where he won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, and was sele ...

in the MAC's Vern Smith Award for player of the year. His senior year was under a new head coach,

Terry Hoeppner Terry Lee Hoeppner (August 19, 1947 – June 19, 2007) was an American college football coach who served as head coach of the Miami RedHawks from 1999 to 2004 and the Indiana Hoosiers from 2005 to 2006. Shortly after announcing that he would be ...

, who installed a more open passing attack rather than relying on the running game. Prentice ran for 1659 yards and 17 touchdowns. In the process he broke several Division I-A scoring records and was named third team All-American by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

. Prentice ended his career at Miami with 5,596 yards on 1,138 carries and numerous school, conference and NCAA records. At one point he recorded 862 consecutive touches without a fumble. On September 6, 2014, during halftime of the Eastern Kentucky game, Prentice became the fourth Miami RedHawk to have his football jersey retired. The previous three players were

Ben Roethlisberger Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. (; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college footbal ...

(#7), Bob Hitchens (#40), and John Pont (#42).

Notable games

;vs. Akron (1999) Prentice exploded for 376 rushing yards in a 32–23 win against

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city pro ...

. This set the

record for most yards in a single game. At the time it was the 6th highest rushing total in Division I-A history. On his final carry of the game he broke

Ricky Williams Errick Miron (born Errick Lynne Williams Jr.; May 21, 1977) is an American former football running back who played 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) and one season in the Canadian Football League (CFL). After playing baseball ...

' career records both for points scored and total touchdowns with a 72-yard touchdown run. ;At North Carolina (1998) Prentice helped lead the RedHawks to a 13–10 upset of the #12 ranked

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the ''Tar Heel ...

, rushing for 162 yards and a touchdown. Most of his yards came in the second half, including several carries on the last drive that led to a last-second game-winning field goal by John Scott. It was the first time in ten years that one player rushed for more than 150 yards on UNC. ;At Virginia Tech (1997) Prentice helped Miami to a 24–17 win over then-undefeated and twelfth-ranked

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. His numbers were not great (82 yards on 21 carries), but he ran for a touchdown on a game-changing fake field goal that was named CNN's "play of the day."

NCAA records (at the end of his career)

* Career rushing TDs (73) * Career total TDs (78) * Career points (468) * Career points (non-kickers) (468) * Games with TDs (35) * Game with two or more TDs (25) * Consecutive carries without a fumble, season (365) * Consecutive carries without a fumble, career (862)

Professional career

Prentice was the first pick in the third round by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

in the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Th ...

. As a rookie, he rushed for 512 yards and seven touchdowns, while also catching 37 passes, but was largely considered a bust due to his lowly 3.0 yards per carry average. He was cut by Cleveland after the 2000 season, and had just 14 carries with the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

the following year. He then signed with the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division, an ...

, but did not play a single down with them and left the NFL after that.

References