From the moment his uncle stuck a football in his hands at the age of 4, Deonta McMahon has carried the load.

For him it is all just so natural.

“I love to play football and be the guy,” McMahon said. “I loving carrying the load.”

The McNeese State senior back is clearly “the guy” for the Cowboys.

With two games remaining in what has been a tough 2-7 season, McMahon is looking to make history, closing in on becoming not only the next 1,000-yard McNeese rusher but also the first Cowboy to lead the Southland Conference in rushing since Toddrick Pendland did it in 2008.

“Honestly, I don’t think about that,” McMahon said. “It would be nice, but I just worry about being the best I can be.”

McMahon was at his best last week when he rushed for a career-high 211 yards on 26 carries in the Cowboys’ 29-15 win over Eastern Illinois. He scored his eighth touchdown in three games to boot.

But with all his running in McNeese’s Air Raid offense, McMahon was most talkative about his one pass, a 33-yard touchdown strike to freshman Jon McCall.

“That was fun,” McMahon said. “He was wide open, I just didn’t want to overthrow him.”

Like most of this season, McMahon was right on target.

“He is really some kind of athlete,” McNeese head coach Gary Goff said. “Everybody knows he’s going to get the ball and the defense stacks the line against him. Still he gets his yards.

“He has had an amazing season and has been great through everything for us.”

McMahon has been the one constant for the Cowboys. He has run for 972 yards on 144 carries, good for an average of 6.8 a run.

He leads the Southland by 202 yards over Incarnate Word’s Marcus Cooper, who has played one more game. McMahon’s 108 yards a game average is 27 more than the league’s No. 2 guy.

“Deonta is amazing back there,” quarterback Walker Wood said. “It is great to have a guy you can count on every time he gets the football. He gets his yards no matter what.”

While McMahon appears to be a runaway winner for the league rushing title and is 28 yards from 1,000, he has an outside shot at 2,000 for his career. He is at 1,719 with games against Houston Christian (2-7) and Lamar (1-8) remaining, both of which are a game ahead of the last-place Cowboys.

“I don’t think about that either,” said McMahon, who also tops the league in all-purpose yards at 1,445.

McMahon came to McNeese before the hurricanes of 2020 and after earning all-American honors at Butte (Calif.) Junior College. He had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. But despite his numbers and awards, no colleges were looking at him.

Being 5-foot-9 didn’t help.

“Nobody really was out there offering me anything but McNeese did,” said McMahon, who elected to stay at McNeese when others entered the NCAA transfer portal.

“I really liked it here and wanted to give it a chance. It has worked out for me.”

For McNeese as well.

“Deonta is such a big part of our offense and what we do,” Goff said. “He is a very mature young man who works extremely hard.”

McMahon says he’s playing for more than himself. He has a 4-year-old daughter.

“A lot of people counted me out but I have a lot of people counting on me,” McMahon said. “I just had to do this for me and my child. She gives me a lot of motivation to keep going.”

And that has led him to the brink of history as a Cowboy when it comes to rushing titles in the Southland.