Army running back Kanye Udoh shows some sprinter speed with two long scores at Tulsa

A week earlier, Kanye Udoh lived out his Philadelphia Freedom moment.

Growing up only 48 miles from the city, Udoh put on a show at Lincoln Financial Field – home of his beloved Eagles – and an ESPN audience, Udoh rushed 14 times for a career-high 128 yards and a score as Army trampled Temple 42-14. It was a reaffirming outing for a sophomore running back, who had faced the wrath of coach Jeff Monken for a couple loose plays earlier in the season.

Fast forward a week, and Udoh showed off some skills that not even Monken knew he had. On consecutive series and nearly exact same plays in the third quarter of Saturday’s 49-7 victory at Tulsa , Udoh took handoffs in the backfield, sprinted around the right side – thanks to some amazing seal-off blocks – and raced to scores of 61 and 63 yards as the Black Knights pulled away. The latter run is his new career-high gain after posting a 41-yard run against Temple. He established a new personal best of 137 yards.

“Shout out to the (offensive) line today,’’ Udoh said. “They blocked amazingly on both of those plays. Shout out to my left guard Bill (Katsigiannis), who pulled on both plays, both touchdowns. I was placed out to my left … he pulled and got the back, and I just read his block and I was able to burst through.’’

No one was more thrilled than Monken.

“I'm glad to see Kanye do that,’’ he said. “I think he's capable of doing that. All last year I'm just thinking, ‘When are we going to pop the zone out of there?' … and twice we did it today. He was fast enough to outrun those guys. He's better in the open field speed-wise than even I thought because they’ve got some fast guys who were trying to run him down, and they couldn't catch him.’’

For the season, Udoh has 57 carries for 434 yards (an average of 7.6 per carry) and six touchdowns. He opened the season with 75 yards against Lehigh, 70 at Florida Atlantic and only 24 against Rice.

kmcmillan@th-record.com

X / Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Army running back Kanye Udoh shows some sprinter speed with two long scores at Tulsa