James Cowser still has Jared Allen in his sights but a national record is now his.
On Saturday, the Southern Utah senior defensive end notched three tackles for loss in SUU’s 54-37 win against Cal Poly, bringing his season total to 11.5 and his career total to 72.5. The Big Sky Conference started keeping tackles for loss stats in 2000, the year before the NCAA instituted the statistic on the FCS level. Jared Allen, a former Idaho State standout and a future NFL Hall of Famer after Pro Bowl stints with the Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings, still holds the Big Sky record with 73 tackles for loss in his career. But Cowser’s performance helped him break the Division I FCS record for tackles for loss in a career. Keith Pough of Howard University previously held the record with 71 tackles behind the line of scrimmage between 2009 and 2012.
“He’s amazing,” Southern Utah eighth-year head coach Ed Lamb said on Monday. “Coaching football is just so humbling for me because when we do poorly, I take such a huge piece of that on my shoulders and I feel like I let the guys down. When we do well, the plays that the players make just stand out. We don’t teach guys necessarily to get a tackle for a loss or a strip sack. We just teach them about gap control and where their eyes should be. So to see a guy like James that has so consistently made plays is almost unbelievable.”
With half of a tackle for loss more, Cowser will tie Allen. With 2.5 more TFLs, Cowser will tie former Buffalo standout Khalil Mack (2010-2013) and former Western Michigan standout Jason Babin (2000-2003) for the all-time Division I, FBS or FCS, record mark of 75. Mack is a standout for the Oakland Raiders. Babin is currently an NFL free agent who spent stints with eight teams during a 12-year NFL career.
Cowser’s record-setting tackle behind the line of scrimmage was his second sack of the day. He finished the afternoon with eight tackles, two sacks, three tackles for loss, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries as SUU forced five Cal Poly fumbles. Cowser returned his second fumble recovery 57 yards for a touchdown, one of three scores registered by the Southern Utah defense.
“I haven’t really thought about it too much,” Cowser said on Wednesday. “I didn’t even know last week until they threw it up on the scoreboard and I saw my picture. That’s about the most I’ve thought about it. Maybe at the end of the year, I will think it’s super cool but right now, I have to get better still.”
This season, Cowser has 51 total tackles for an SUU defense that has allowed just 14 touchdowns all season. Cowser has 11.5 tackles for loss, seven sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. SUU is giving up 9.8 points per game during a 5-0 start in Big Sky play. The five touchdowns the Thunderbirds surrendered to Cal Poly were the first five touchdowns a Big Sky team has scored against them this season.
For his career, the 6-foot-4, 258-pound Cowser has 72.5 tackles for loss and 36.5 sacks. He needs two more sacks to tie Allen’s all-time Big Sky record. Former Cal Poly standout Chris Gocong owns the FCS record with 42 sacks in his career. Former Arizona State standout and current Baltimore Ravens All-Pro Terrell Suggs holds the Division I record with 44 career sacks.
“The thing that makes him such a great leader is we have clips of teams that have two and three guys on James whether it’s a run or pass protection and whether he wins or loses when he is double teamed or triple teamed, his attitude is always so positive,” Lamb said. “That’s the legacy I hope lives on for a long time amongst the young guys who have had a chance to watch him play.”
Southern Utah has three games remaining in the regular season as the Thunderbirds chase their first-ever Big Sky crown. SUU plays at Montana State this weekend and at No. 12 Portland State on November 14. SUU wraps up the regular season with a home date against Northern Arizona on November 21.
