Bradley Says Bold Prediction Was Meant to Motivate

Jaumal Bradley walked off the Cal State Northridge practice field one day this week boasting he would outrush Charles Roberts of Cal State Sacramento in a Big Sky Conference showdown on Saturday at North Campus Stadium.

A tall order, considering Roberts, a 5-foot-7 junior, rushed for a Division I-AA-record 2,260 yards last season and leads the Big Sky in rushing this season.

Roberts had 231 yards against the Matadors last year.

Bradley, a senior fullback, last week rushed for a career-high 116 yards against Montana after being sidelined two weeks because of an illness that caused him to lose 16 pounds.

Bradley failed to make good on his prediction, as Roberts gained a game-high 167 yards in the Matadors’ 36-14 victory. But he had no apologies to make after the game.

Bradley rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown, extending for the fourth time this season his single-game high.

Besides, Bradley said he was just trying to motivate his teammates before the most important game of the season.

“I don’t walk around professing to be great,” Bradley said. “I don’t predict I’m going to have a million yards or anything. But I told my defense I want to outrush him and I told my offensive line that, too. I wanted to outrush him.”

He nearly did.

When Sacramento took possession at its six-yard line with 1:01 to play and Northridge leading, 36-14, Roberts had 131 yards rushing, one behind Bradley.

On his first carry, Roberts ran 28 yards, his longest gain of the day.

Yet, like most of Roberts’ carries, it did not hurt the Matadors. Roberts did not get near the end zone, save for catching a two-point conversion pass late in the game.

Bradley, conversely, did his share of damage to the Hornets.

He had seven carries, including a 17-yard gain, during the second quarter to help sustain a 98-yard touchdown drive.

In the fourth quarter, Bradley’s 40-yard run set up a six-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Brady to Joe Gilliam.

Bradley’s 30 carries and 40-yard run were career highs.

Bradley has played in only four games this season, rushing for personal bests in each game.

He had 89 yards in the opener against Western Oregon on Sept. 4 and 109 yards at Kansas on Sept. 11.

‘Some guys might have looked at me like I was crazy,” Bradley said. “This guy [Roberts] had 2,000 yards. And everyone was talking like he was some kind of superstar.

“I wasn’t just saying it to say, ‘Hey, put that in the press.’ I wanted people to know. I told all the guys on the team that that’s the attitude I have going into the game. That’s the mind-set that we had going into the game.”