Ken Simonton

Montreal Machine HB Ken Simonton (5'8, 191, Oregon State) is making a run at MVP, if not Offensive Player of the Year.

Simonton is 2nd in all purpose yardage with 1,534 (2 behind the leader), 3rd in scoring with 92 points (4 behind the leader), 3rd in rushing with 881 yards (128 behind the leader), 2nd in rushing TD's with 13. Simonton's 13 TD's this season is a Machine record.

Many people read the above and figure that if he is not leading in anything, why bother writing... Simonton missed 3 games due to injury and played injured at FB1 for 3 games, so his totals are a bit misleading.

Simonton is currently ranked 5th all-time with 8,492 yards rushing, and 4th all-time in rushing TD's with 86. He also ranks 8th all-time in all-purpose yardage with 13,831 while rankining 21st all-time in scoring with 682 points. Simonton was originally drafted by the Orlando Thunder in 2006 where he ran for 705 yards as a rookie. He had a career best 1,225 yards and 4.6 average the next season, and went on to run for 7,611 yards with Orlando and Austria before coming to Montreal. With the re-occuring injuries at HB with Corey Walker, the Machine traded a 2nd round draft pick to Austria for Simonton, and have been benefited from the results, as Montreal is 7-4 and in the hunt for a FWL Bowl.

Simonton had a standout career at Oregon State, setting school records in career rushing yards with 5,044, 366 points scored, and 26 100-yard rushing games… Played in 46 career games, carrying the ball 1,041 times for 5,044 yards (4.8 avg.), scoring 59 rushing touchdowns… He is the second-leading rusher in Pac-10 Conference history, trailing only 1979 Heisman Trophy winner Charles White of USC… Also ranks second on the Pac-10 career scoring list… Totaled 971 yards on 239 carries with 8 touchdowns in his senior year for the Beavers, the only season he did not surpass the 1,000-yard mark in his career… Set a school record with 1,559 yards on 284 attempts, and tied his own mark of 19 touchdowns set the previous year as a junior in 2000…Was a unanimous choice for the All-Pac 10 first team, and was named second-team All-American by the Associated Press and The Football News… Became the first player in Pac-10 history to run for 1,000 yards in each of his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons… Selected second-team All-Pac 10 in his junior season when he carried the ball 294 times for a then-school record 1,486 yards and 19 touchdowns in 12 games.

Ken won many honors as a two-sport (football and baseball) star for the Pittsburg High School Pirates in his hometown of Pittsburg, California... Following his senior year he was named honorable mention All-American by USA Today and first-team all-state in California...Was a three-time All-Bay Valley Athletic League selection as a running back and he was named all-league as a defensive back also his senior year... Was a first-team All-Northern California selection, a first-team all-region selection by the Contra Costa Times and was named Offensive Player of the Year in the region by Sports Focus... Was an outfielder in baseball and was all-league as a sophomore, junior and senior… As a senior, rushed for 960 yards on 92 carries (10.4 average) and he scored 23 touchdowns... Was listed in Parade Magazine in 1996 as one of the top 100 college baseball prospects in the nation... His father, Ken Simonton II, played baseball for the Boston Red Sox…

[JINX.. I wrote about Landry last week and he is injured now... here is hoping the same jinx doesn't occur].