Markey’s skills put him close to rare milestone

Johnny Roesch did it in 1944, and Kermit Alexander accomplished the feat in 1962. Now UCLA junior Chris Markey is one game away from joining the short list of players who have led the Bruins in rushing and receiving in the same season.

Markey leads UCLA with 963 yards rushing and has a team-high 33 receptions.

“As a running back, you want to do anything you can to help your team win,” said Markey, who averages 103.2 all-purpose yards per game.

But he added that it means more for him to rush for 1,000 because it was a goal he set at the start of the season.

“I knew that if I rushed for 1,000 yards or more, I’d be helping the team,” Markey said. “I wanted to get it done during the regular season, but that didn’t happen. Fortunately, we have one more game.”

Markey knows it is not a given that he’ll gain 37 yards or more against Florida State in the Emerald Bowl, because of the Seminoles’ strong defense.

“They have such a great tradition with their defense,” said Markey, fourth in the Pacific 10 Conference in rushing at 80.25 yards per game.

“In watching film on them, they are just as good or better than USC’s defense. They have lightning speed and just fly to the football.”

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Although Florida State finished the regular season 6-6 with an offense ranked 73rd in the nation in total yards per game, the Seminoles feature a group of receivers who could give UCLA’s secondary some problems with their combination of size and speed.

Chris Davis, a 6-foot senior, leads Florida State in receptions with 46 and has caught at least one pass in 24 consecutive games.

De’Cody Fagg, a 6-3 junior, sat out two games because of an ankle injury and still has 31 catches. Greg Carr, a 6-6 sophomore, leads the Seminoles with 11 touchdown catches.

“The thing is that by this time of year, we’ve seen a number of big receivers,” junior cornerback Rodney Van said. “It helps that we’ve faced guys like Oregon’s Jaison Williams, USC’s [Dwayne] Jarrett and even Notre Dame’s [Jeff] Samardzija.

“They are all 6-5 and 6-6 receivers, and we can look at how we defended them. We can go back and look at film and see how we got it done. You can’t use the same technique, because the other team watches film too. But you can take from what we’ve already done.”

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Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, who is 77 and the all-time leader in coaching victories in major college football, on retirement: “I’d rather coach than retire. But I know we’d have to win more games than we did this year to do it. But the next thing after retirement is you-know-what, and I’m not going to volunteer for that.”

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The Emerald Bowl will be played at AT&T; Park, and because the stadium was built for baseball, both teams will be on the same sideline Wednesday. “That’s going to be very interesting,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “I’ve never been in a game set up like that.” ... The Bruins will be the home team and wear blue jerseys for the game.... Bowden has a 19-9-1 bowl-game record. Dorrell is 1-2 in bowls.

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lonnie.white@latimes.com