SAN DIEGO – Jordan Lynch will make a run at history Thursday night when he suits up for the final time for No. 24 Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl against Utah State.

Lynch already owns the major college record for yards rushing for a quarterback with 1,881. With 119 yards, he can become the first player to rush for 2,000 yards and throw for 2,000.

"I'm just really proud of him and wish I had him for about 10 more years but we don't," NIU coach Rod Carey said. "This is the last game we get him. That's the biggest thing with him."

Lynch has passed for 2,676 yards and 23 touchdowns. He's rushed for 22 scores and even caught a touchdown pass in leading the Huskies to a 12-1 record.

"Listen, we ask him to do a lot, and it's not because that's our system. It's because he can," Carey said. "Those are the things that amaze you. He makes the complicated things and the hard things skillwise look easy. That's what amazes you every day. You tell him one time one play and then it's done. It's locked in a vault. That's what is amazing to me."

That's why Lynch was named to the Associated Press All-America team as an all-purpose player.

Utah State coach Matt Wells knows Lynch has quite the supporting cast in fellow 1,000-yard rusher Cameron Stingily and wide receivers Tommylee Lewis and Da'Ron Brown.

"Jordan Lynch is fun to watch -- it's not fun to watch because you understand you're going to have to defend him, but from a quarterback perspective, I've got a lot of respect for him," said Wells, who played quarterback at Utah State in the mid-1990s.

"The guy is an 1,800-yard running back, and by the way he's over 60-percent completion and 3-to-1 touchdown-interception ratio. It's amazing, and that's back-to-back years. As you study him and the things that he's done since he's become a starter, he's a flat-out winner," Wells said.

"I said to Rod last Wednesday when we were talking, you know, it's almost like it's a once-in-a-lifetime young man to coach because I know he's the face of that program and everything that he's meant to that staff and that program and that city, that university."