Update: Iowa State RB’s Eli Sanders and Cartevious Norton Miss K-State Game, Expected to Enter Transfer Portal
While the Iowa State Cyclones entered Saturday night’s game against Kansas State as 10-point underdogs, they were able to pull off an impressive 42-35 win, without their Top two running backs.
Eli Sanders and Cartevious Norton missed the game, and reasons behind the absences were not provided by Iowa State. However, a report from Cyclone Fanatic says that the two running backs are going to enter the transfer portal on December 4th. CF reports it’s not about NIL, but rather the two wanting to be No. 1 backs to end their college football careers.
The report on Sanders’ and Norton’s status came from the Des Moines Register’s Travis Hines. Sanders entered the game as the the leading rusher for the Cyclones this season with 102 carries for 477 yards and four scores. Norton spent most of the season in the back up role with 87 carriers for 343 yards and three scores.
But both running backs may have seen the writing on the wall with true freshman Abu Sama III, who has a high ceiling that was on full display on Saturday night. He entered the game with 34 carries for 334 yards and three scores.
And then, Sama went off for the Cyclones against the Wildcats.
Abu carried the football 15 times on Saturday night and ran for a whopping 276 yards and three touchdowns. He became the first Big 12 player since Adrian Peterson back in 2005 to have two 70+ yard rushing touchdowns in a single game. Abu also made his way into the Iowa State record book as his 276 yards was the fifth most in a single game in Iowa State history.
The future is with Sama in the ISU backfield.
