It’s not a football factory, but Luke Sweeney is working hard

The leading rusher in college football gets no special privileges on campus. He doesn’t even have an athletic scholarship.

“Definitely, there’s no perks here,” said Luke Sweeney, a junior running back at Division III Pomona-Pitzer. “We have to wait in really long Taco Tuesday lines at the dining hall.”

The leading rusher in college football, who’s averaging 203.3 yards a game for the Sagehens, isn’t enrolled in remedial basketweaving. He’s taking two hard-core courses in economics, his major, and one in linguistics. With Pomona College’s average class size of 15 and a student-faculty ratio of 7 to 1, he can’t sleep in and ask another student to do his work.

“If I didn’t show up even for two classes in a row, I’d get an email from my professor. For sure,” Sweeney said. “You’d just fail out from school if you didn’t show up. It’s serious. Everyone’s here to get a good education and a degree.”

Welcome to the land that NCAA scandals forgot. It should be required visiting for every fan disgusted by lavish payments to NFL stars-in-training and major colleges that throw cars at kids they exploit for bigger TV contracts.

Sweeney, who rushed for a career-high 265 yards last week against Occidental, leads Division III rushers by 35 yards a game over Johrone Bunch of Mount Ida and has a 15-yard lead in all divisions over Jonas Randolph of Division II Mars Hill. Big yards for a small guy: He’s listed on the roster at 5 feet 7 and 175 pounds. “After lunch,” he said, laughing.

His ability to grind out yards for the 0-5 Sagehens and his love for the game are no joke.

“I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else,” he said. “The quality of academics and the professors, it’s amazing. ? Football-wise, our players just want to get on the field. Coming out of high school we just want to keep playing. You can do that anywhere there’s a field.”

He was born in Pasadena, where his maternal grandparents still live. His parents, who met as students at Occidental, moved their family to the Tulsa, Okla., suburb of Broken Arrow when Luke was 5. Phil Sweeney teaches at Holland Hall, the prep school Luke attended, and Elli Sweeney is a computer programmer.

Luke, the younger of their two sons, applied to Occidental but felt an immediate connection with Pomona. There’s much to like. The campus is leafy and serene; behind 4,000-seat Merritt Field, the Sagehens’ tidy home, is a pool where swimmers and water polo players splash away.

“It’s just a really quality school,” Sweeney said. “I’m really happy with the program here and what we’re trying to do.”

Pomona College, which offers financial aid on a need basis rather than merit, teams with Pitzer to compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Players are a generally few inches shorter and a few steps slower than athletes at Ivy League schools, but they’re the academic equal of anyone.

There are no recruiting scandals here, no corners cut for athletes.

“It’s different,” said Sagehens Coach Roger Caron, who was an offensive lineman at Harvard and played 10 games for Indianapolis over two NFL seasons. “It’s the way it should be, some would argue.

“We tell students who are looking here that if football is the most important thing in your life, you’re looking at the wrong place. Go walk on at San Diego State and save your parents some money. But I think we have the right perspective here about the balance between academics and athletics.”

Sweeney, a fullback as a freshman, was moved to tailback last season in a quarterback-dominated offense. With the graduation of the quarterback -- Caron’s son, Jake -- Sweeney became featured in a downhill run attack.

He sat out one game because of injury and has carried the ball 152 times for 813 yards, with a longest run of 51 yards. Against Lewis & Clark he had 187 yards rushing and his longest carry was for 17.

“He’s not a big kid, but he’s tough as nails,” Caron said. “Just tough, tough, tough, and he plays at a speed that you don’t always see. Relentless. When he plays, it’s all-out, all the time. There’s no take-a-play-off with him.”

That also means Sweeney gets pounded, and he has the bruises to prove it.

“You take all these hits, but you have so much adrenaline you’re just plugged into the game and you don’t notice it,” he said. “But I’d say about 15 minutes after the game’s over I’m a hobbling mess for the next couple days.”

Although he usually bounces back quickly, his team has been depleted by injuries, leaving Caron with only about 35 players available for Saturday’s home game against 12th-ranked Cal Lutheran (4-1). The Sagehens, who have endured a few last-minute losses, face a tough challenge and Sweeney will have to work hard to maintain his rushing lead.

Proud though he is of his feats, being No. 1 isn’t his primary concern.

“People tell me how many yards I get after every game and I guess it’s in the back of your mind, but honestly we’re just trying to win,” he said. “If I could trade all my yards for a win, I would definitely do that in a heartbeat.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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