In just two years, running back Marcus Mason had numbers that some players would be thrilled with for an entire career.
In his two seasons at YSU he amassed 2,739 rushing yards on 478 carries and scored 31 touchdowns. In just 21 career games played, Mason averaged 130.4 rushing yards a contest and 5.7 yards per rush. On 14 occasions, he rushed for more than 100 yards and on three of those he eclipsed the 200-yard mark. He scored a touchdown in 16 games and had 10 multi-TD performances. He finished with 2,940 all-purpose yards in his YSU career.
His performance in 2006 was the best by a tailback in the Penguins’ storied history of ball carriers. Playing in 12 of the 14 games that season he rushed for 1,847 yards, averaging 153.9 yards per contest. He broke the previous best per-game-average by 22.4 yards a contest. Both of those marks are school single-season records. He had a school-record 10 100-yard rushing performances and became the first player in school history to accomplish the feat in six straight games.
Mason was a consensus first-team Football Championship Subdivision All-American honored by the Walter Camp Foundation, AFCA, The Sports Network and the Associated Press. In the balloting for the Walter Payton Award, which honors to top offensive player in the country, he was fourth. The Gateway Football Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year, he was second in the FCS averaging his school record 153.9 rushing yards per game. In conference games he averaged a whopping 198.2 yards a game on the ground.
He had two of the most impressive rushing performances in school history in a span of 21 days. On Oct. 14, he rushed for 265 yards on just 20 carries in a 35-28 win at Western Illinois. That afternoon in Macomb, Mason rushed for the second most yards in a game in school history thanks to touchdown runs of 95 and 75 yards. The 95-yard run at the time was the longest in school history. Three games later he put up the fifth-best yardage performance in YSU history running for 249 yards and 29 attempts in a key win over Southern Illinois. He left the game momentarily with a leg injury, but came back to score the game-winning TD with 1:22 remaining in the 31-24 triumph.
In three playoff games he had 351 yards rushing on 74 carries and scored four touchdowns. In the first round against James Madison, Mason and the Penguins wore down the Dukes late and his one-yard TD plunge with 1:12 remaining proved to be the game winner. He had the game-winning score a week later as the Guins held on to beat conference foe Illinois State in the quarterfinals. At Appalachian State in the final game of his YSU career, Mason had 121 yards on 22 carries and scored a touchdown.
In 2005, Mason was named the Gateway Football Conference’s Newcomer of the Year. A second-team all-conference performer, he finished with 892 yards on 176 carries while scoring eight touchdowns. In nine games played, he averaged 99.1 yards per contest. His best performance on the season was a 203-yard, 32-carry contest against Missouri State. In his seven Gateway games, he rushed for 810 yards on 156 attempts and had all eight of his scores. He averaged 115.7 yards in Gateway action.
Prior to joining the YSU program in August 2005, he spent two seasons at Illinois. In his two years with the Illini, he played in 15 games, including eight during his freshman season. As a freshman he rushed for 214 yards on 64 carries before rushing 11 times for 28 yards as a sophomore. He also returned kickoffs during his time at Illinois.
Mason, a native of Potomac, Md., had an impressive high school career as well at Georgetown Prep. He was the all-time leading rushing in Maryland High School Football history totaling more than 5,700 yards. As a senior, he racked up 1,532 yards and scored 29 touchdowns. He was the Metro Offensive Player of the Year by the Washington Post was named the Area Player of the Year. As a junior he had a career-high 2,100 yards and scored 26 touchdowns.
After his YSU career, Mason, a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan, played for his hometown team, but Cowboys rival, the Washington Redskins on two occasions and was a part of three other organizations.
In 2007, Mason made the Redskins’ 53-man roster, but was soon moved to the practice squad for the season. During the 2008 preseason, Mason led all NFL rushers with 317 yards on 66 carries. He was signed to the practice squad with the Baltimore Ravens in September 2008 before joining the New York Jets on Oct. 29. He returned to Washington for the 2009 campaign before finishing his NFL career with the San Diego Chargers in August 2010.
He resides in Atlanta, Ga.
