Tony Hunt (football player)

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This article is about the American football player. For the Canadian First Nations artist, see Tony Hunt (artist).

Tony Hunt
Date of birth	November 24, 1985 (age 21)
Place of birth	San Antonio, Texas
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	233 lb (106 kg)
Position(s)	RB
College	Penn State

Antonio Christopher Hunt (born November 24, 1985 in San Antonio, Texas) is a collegiate American football running back for Penn State University. He attended T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, best known as the subject of the film Remember The Titans.

[edit] College career

Hunt finished his Penn State career 2nd all-time in career rushing yards with 3,320 yards and first all-time with 654 carries (5.08 avg.). [1] A Doak Walker Award candidate in 2006, Hunt became only the fifth Nittany Lion to rush for back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and the fifth to rush for more than 3,000 career yards. [2] He was named Big Ten Conference Offensive Player of the Week after a career-best 167-yard rushing game versus Temple. [3]

Hunt led Penn State in rushing during the 2005 and 2004 seasons, amassing 1,047 and 777 yards respectively.

At the outset of his college career, Hunt was overshadowed by fellow running back Austin Scott, who was considered the more promising recruit, having broken many Pennsylvania high school football records. Despite this, Hunt won the starting running back job through his work ethic, and by virtue of being a better pass blocker than Scott. [4]

2006 Season: Hunt began the year with less than desierable with 35 yards with limited time against akron. The next week he was able to get 74 yards on 12 carries ( 6.2 average)He the got 143 yards ( 7.9 average) against youngstown state. He followed that up with two more 100 yard performances against ohio state and minneasota. He would continue on to get more good regular season performances against good teams like purdue and michigan state, including a carrer high against temple. His only bad game was against wisconsin( he only got 33 rushing yards against michigan, but got 85 recieving yards and a touchdown that brought the within 7 with around 3 minutes to play, but penn state was not able to score and they lost 17-10.) Hunt ended his career as a Nittany Lion with a MVP performance versus Tennessee in the 2006 Outback Bowl. With head coach Joe Paterno coaching from the press box due to a knee injury sustained earlier in the season, Hunt took control of the game, rushing for 158 yards on 31 carries in the 20-10 win.

Hunt was also named the MVP of the 2007 Senior Bowl on January 27, 2007, after leading all running backs in total yards.^[1]

[edit] High School

A standout player at T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia (made famous by the film Remember the Titans), Hunt rushed for more than 2,000 total yards and also played linebacker, defensive end, and even punted. [5] He was named the Alexandria Sportsman Club Player-of-the-Year in 2002-03. [6] He was also a stalwart on the track and field team, finishing eighth in Virginia in the discus as a junior. [7]

Hunt originally made a verbal commitment to play football at University of Southern California, but instead signed a letter-of-intent with Penn State upon learning of Reggie Bush's commitment to the Trojans [8], [9].