Donnel Pumphrey was hired as Sacramento State’s running backs coach in February of 2023.
In 2023, Pumphrey coached Marcus Fulcher to all-Big Sky honors. The senior led the team in rushing with 590 yards despite being limited to 10 games. Fulcher also scored a team-high eight rushing touchdowns and added two more through the air. Elijah Tau-Tolliver and Zeke Burnett each added a 100-yard rushing game during the year to join the two from Fulcher. Eight different Hornet backs had a carry during the season with four finding the end zone.
The following year, Tau-Tolliver was named honorable mention all-Big Sky. Tau-Tolliver led the team with 950 rushing yards and scored seven touchdowns on the ground. He also caught 38 passes for 317 yards and two touchdowns. During the season, Tau-Tolliver had five games with at least 100 rushing yards and also set the school record by a running back with 11 receptions in a game. As a team, the Hornets averaged 4.5 yards per carry.
The NCAA’s all-time leading rusher and a Super Bowl champion, Pumphrey comes to the Hornets after serving as a graduate assistant at San Diego State during the 2022 season where he coached cornerbacks.
Pumphrey was a standout at San Diego State from 2013-16 where he helped the Aztecs to a pair of Mountain West Conference titles and four bowl games. He appeared in all 54 games during his career and saw SDSU compile a 37-17 record. Pumphrey ended his career with 6,405 career rushing yards which is the most in NCAA FBS history. He also ranked fifth in in all-purpose yards (7,515), tied for eighth in touchdowns scored (7,515) and ninth in rushing touchdowns (62).
Pumphrey is the player in NCAA FBS history with at least 5,000 rushing yards (or 6,000 yards) and 1,000 receiving yards. He also owns San Diego State career records in all-purpose yards (7,515), 100-yard rushing games (33), overall touchdowns (67), rushing touchdowns (62), overall points (402) and rushing attempts (1,059). Those numbers led to him becoming a two-time Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year (2015-16), three-time first-team all-MW pick (2014-16) and three-time SDSU most valuable player (2014-16)
As a senior in 2016, Pumphrey rushed for a then school-record 2,133 yards and 17 touchdowns en route to finishing in a tie for 10th in the Heisman Trophy voting. Pumphrey was a finalist for the Doak Walk Award (top running back), semifinalist for the Maxwell Award (offensive player of the year) and Walter Camp Player of the Year, first-team All-America selection by Walter Camp and Sports Illustrated, and a second-team All-America pick by Associated Press, AFCA, USA Today and The Sporting News.
Pumphrey was selected in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles won Super Bowl LII that season over the New England Patriots.
