Record-setting Whitworth running back Luis Salgado looks to go out on top

As a freshman, just days before his first game with Whitworth, Luis Salgado suffered a quad contusion in a scrimmage that put him out for several weeks.

The Tri-Cities native was eager to make an instant impact running the football for the Pirates, but the broken tackles and touchdown celebrations would have to wait.

“That really put a chip on my shoulder,” Salgado recalls. “I made it a priority to come to practice every day and earn a spot on the bus. That’s what I did.”

As he got healthy and worked his way through a loaded depth chart, the opportunities finally began to arrive later in the season. Eight games in, Salgado’s patience paid off with a 63-yard scamper for a touchdown against Puget Sound.

The next week, his first touch was a 39-yard burst up the middle for a touchdown, and he rode the momentum to a 113-yard, two-score game. It was a sign of what was to come.

“I never looked back,” Salgado said.

Fast forward to his senior season, as the Pirates look to complete an undefeated record in Northwest Conference play, Salgado is not only still breaking tackles and scoring touchdowns for the Pirates, but the 5-8, 185-pound, hard-nosed runner has found his way into the school record books, too.

During Saturday’s 29-0 rout of Willamette, where the Pirates clinched a playoff berth, Salgado became the fourth player in Whitworth history to reach 3,000 rushing yards.

“It means a lot,” Salgado said of the accomplishment. “It just shows how much hard work and dedication really matter. When preparation meets opportunity, beautiful things can happen.

“I couldn’t do it without the coaching staff and my teammates, but it definitely is a crazy feat that I never pictured happening in a million years when I came here as a freshman.”

Whitworth coach Rod Sandberg praised Salgado’s durability.

“You can’t do something like that unless you’re out there and continuously out there,” Sandberg said. “If you’re hurt and not playing, you can’t do something like that. So it’s durability and toughness … and the confidence that this team has in him, to give him the ball in big moments.”

Salgado, a two-time all-Northwest Conference first-teamer, has had no shortage of big moments as a Pirate.

Most notably among them came against Pacific last year on the road, where he collected more than one-tenth of his career rushing yards in one game.

Salgado picked up an absurd 365 yards on 25 carries along with three touchdowns. His rushing total destroyed the single-game school record.

“The elite ones can break tackles and that’s what Luis can do,” Sandberg said. “…He is just maybe the best – I’ve coached more talented running backs and more successful (ones) over my 30 years of being around, but there is nobody that can break tackles better than Luis Salgado.”

Salgado likens his play style to two NFL running backs – Indianapolis Colts veteran Jonathan Taylor’s open-field ability to make defenders miss and New York Giants rookie Cam Skattebo’s toughness and balance to bounce off tacklers.

Salgado’s willingness to absorb contact partially comes from his background at linebacker, which was a position he played and succeeded at as a two-way player growing up and throughout high school.

He earned all-conference honors on both sides of the ball at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, including defensive player of the year his junior year.

Defense came naturally, Salgado said, but he loved scoring touchdowns. He opted to stick with offense in a spur-of-the-moment decision when Sandberg asked him in a recruitment video call.

While he sometimes misses playing defense, he likely made the right choice.

Salgado credits a “brotherhood” for drawing him into Whitworth and is grateful for numerous members of the Pirates coaching staff that he considers mentors.

“They taught me so much,” Salgado said. “They taught what it meant to be, not just a great football player, but also how to conduct myself off the field also.”

Salgado is quick to deflect praise to his teammates, but the respect goes both ways, which, through a player election process, earned him a role as a team captain this season.

“Fierce competitor, big in big moments, confident, producer and inspiring” were just some of the comments he received from teammates, Sandberg said.

“He’s always been gifted as a running back, but the most growth I’ve seen in him is as a leader,” Sandberg said. “Early in his career, he was just kind of a quiet and show up and get it done (kid) and was very confident in himself.

“But then as he’s matured and grown and the team has meant more to him, he’s been put in a leadership position and you can see how serious he takes that and how he inspires others and others believe in him.”

Prior to his final season wearing crimson and black, Salgado wrote down a couple goals. He wanted to win another conference championship. He also wanted to reach one thousand yards – again – and ten touchdowns.

His tenth score of the year came in last week’s win and he sits at 877 rushing yards with one game left in the regular season – a Saturday showdown against Puget Sound in the Pine Bowl. But come this weekend, with playoff seeding on the line, his own numbers are taking a backseat.

“Honestly, now that we’ve gotten to this point of the season, all I really care about is that first part, just winning,” Salgado said. “Stats are nice and cool and this and that, but stats don’t tell the full story when you talk about football players … The win and loss column at the end of the day matters way more than any stats at this point in the season for me.”

Salgado is thrilled to have a playoff spot locked up and is confident in the Pirates ability to compete for a national championship, but do not mistake it for complacency.

“We’re taking it one game at a time,” he said. “Our goal this week is just to win every day, win every rep, win every practice. One step at a time.

“But I’m very excited for what this team can accomplish.”