Kareem Hunt (born August 6, 1995) is an American football running back for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Toledo.
Video Kareem Hunt
Early years
Hunt attended South High School in Willoughby, Ohio, where he played for the Rebels football team. He rushed for 2,519 yards and 39 touchdowns as a junior and 2,685 yards and 44 touchdowns as a senior. Hunt was rated by Rivals.com as a three-star recruit and committed to the University of Toledo to play college football.
Maps Kareem Hunt
College career
As a freshman at Toledo in 2013, Hunt played in 12 games with three starts and rushed for 866 yards on 137 carries with six touchdowns. He had a strong four-game stretch in the season with 127 rushing yards and two touchdowns against Navy, 114 rushing yards and a touchdown against Bowling Green, 168 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns against Eastern Michigan, and 186 rushing yards and a touchdown against Buffalo. As a sophomore, he played in 10 games, missing three games due to injury. In the ten games he appeared in, he rushed for at least 101 yards in all of them. He rushed for 1,631 yards on 205 carries with 16 touchdowns. He was the MVP of the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl victory over Arkansas State after rushing for 271 yards and five touchdowns, which tied an NCAA record with Barry Sanders. Hunt was suspended for the first two games of his junior year in 2015 due to a violation of team rules. He returned for the third game, but was injured during the game and missed the next two games. Overall, in the 2015 season, he finished with 973 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. In 2016, Hunt played all 13 games, leading the MAC in both rush attempts (262) and yards (1,475), including 200 rushing yards in the loss at #14 Western Michigan. His 4,945 career rushing yards broke Chester Taylor's school record, and was third all time in MAC conference history. In addition, he holds career school records for yards per rush (6.3, with a minimum of 100 rushes), and total yards from scrimmage (5,500).
College statistics
Professional career
Hunt was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round (86th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft. He was the sixth running back to be selected in the draft. In addition, he was the first of three Toledo Rockets to be selected that year.
Following a knee injury to starting running back Spencer Ware in the Chiefs' third preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks, Hunt was named starting running back for the Chiefs on August 27, 2017.
Hunt made his NFL debut on September 7 against the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football. On his first career NFL carry, Hunt fumbled, with the ball being recovered by the Patriots' safety Devin McCourty, despite never losing a fumble during his college career. Hunt then caught a three-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Alex Smith late in the first half followed by a 78-yard receiving touchdown and a four-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs defeated the Patriots by a score of 42-27, and Hunt finished the game with 246 total yards from scrimmage (148 rushing, 98 receiving), the most ever in an NFL debut. The only other players since 1970 to debut with over 150 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns are Marshall Faulk for the Indianapolis Colts in 1994 (174 yards) and Billy Sims for the Detroit Lions in 1980 (217 yards). His 148 rushing yards led all NFL rushers for Week 1. On September 17, in Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles, he had 13 rushes for 81 yards and two rushing touchdowns to go along with three receptions for 28 yards in the 27-20 victory. He continued his hot start in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers. In the game, he had 17 carries for a season-high 172 yards and a touchdown. Hunt was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Month for the month of September after leading the NFL with 401 rushing yards, 538 yards from scrimmage, and 8.53 yards per carry. He carried his impressive rookie season into October. In Week 5, against the Houston Texans, he had 29 carries for 107 yards. In Week 6, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was held to only 21 rushing yards but had five receptions for 89 yards to keep his streak of games with 100+ scrimmage yards intact. In the next game, a 31-30 loss to the Oakland Raiders, he had 117 total scrimmage yards for his seventh straight game accomplishing the feat. During Saturday Night Football against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15, Hunt posted 206 total yards of offense; 155 rushing yards and 51 receiving yards with 2 touchdowns (one rushing and one receiving) as the Chiefs won 30-13. On December 19, 2017, Hunt was named to the 2018 Pro Bowl as a rookie. In Week 16, against the Miami Dolphins, he had 91 rushing yards and a touchdown, his third consecutive game finding the endzone. Heading into Week 17, Hunt was third in the NFL in rushing yards behind Todd Gurley and Le'Veon Bell. Both Gurley and Bell were inactive for Week 17 after both teams clinched the playoffs and were resting their players, giving Hunt a chance to claim the title. On his first, and only, carry of the game, he went for 35 yards for the touchdown, passing both Bell and Gurley, giving Hunt the rushing yards title for the 2017 season with 1,327 yards. This marked the second season in a row where a rookie led the league in rushing (Ezekiel Elliott in 2016).
The Chiefs finished with a 10-6 record and qualified for the playoffs in the 2017 season. In the Wild Card Round against the Tennessee Titans, Hunt finished with 11 carries for 42 yards and his first career postseason rushing touchdown in the 22-21 defeat.
Career statistics
References
External links
- Toledo Rockets bio
- Kansas City Chiefs bio
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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