NFL rookie Ka­reem Hunt wasn’t plan­ning to play Sun­day against the Den­ver Bron­cos, let alone win the league rush­ing ti­tle.

With a play­off spot clinched, the Kan­sas City Chiefs rested many of their start­ers. Hunt, who grew up near Cleve­land and played at the Univer­sity of Toledo, was asked to be ready in the event a de­pleted Kan­sas City back­field needed him. Once he found out he could fin­ish the reg­u­lar sea­son lead­ing the NFL in rush­ing yards, Hunt asked to go into the game.

He got his wish, and he only needed one carry — which he turned into a 35-yard touch­down — to set the league mark at 1,327 yards. He also fin­ished the reg­u­lar sea­son with eight scores.

“Once I got suited up, I was like, ‘I’m 14 yards away, I’m warmed up, let me just go get it,’” Hunt said.

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It’s been that kind of a dom­i­nant sea­son for Hunt, who’s thrived un­der a na­tional spot­light since he posted 246 to­tal yards in the prime-time Week 1 game against the de­fend­ing cham­pion New En­gland Patri­ots.

Now that spot­light in­ten­si­fies: Hunt will play in his first NFL play­off game Satur­day against the Ten­nes­see Ti­tans, who had the league’s fourth-best run de­fense in the regular season.

“I’m not go­ing to try to do any­thing dif­fer­ent — I’m just go­ing to go out there and play foot­ball,” Hunt said. “Their de­fense flies around and they’ve got a bunch of ath­letic play­ers out there, a good front seven. We’ve got to be more phys­i­cal and go down­hill.”

Those who watched Hunt in col­lege — like Rock­ets coach Ja­son Can­dle — aren’t sur­prised by his emer­gence in Kan­sas City. At Toledo, Hunt to­taled 5,500 yards of to­tal of­fense and 45 touch­downs in his ca­reer, and Toledo won 35 of 50 games while he was there. He fin­ished his ca­reer as the school’s all-time rush­ing leader.

“He’s a prod­uct of rep­e­ti­tion on the field and cer­tainly takes it very se­ri­ous off the field when it comes to pre­par­ing the right way,” Can­dle said. “He’s a com­plete back, and from the games I’ve been able to watch, I’m re­ally proud of his de­vel­op­ment and what he’s be­come.”

Hunt knew he was drafted into a for­tu­nate sit­u­a­tion as early as his draft party in Cleve­land. Chiefs Hall of Fame guard Will Shields was the one on stage to call his name in Phil­a­del­phia, and Hunt im­me­di­ately thought about how he watched the or­ga­ni­za­tion use for­mer tail­back Ja­maal Char­les in years past. On the field, he joined es­tab­lished coach Andy Reid, vet­eran quar­ter­back Alex Smith, and a team that’s now in the play­offs for the third con­sec­u­tive year.

"My hat goes off to him." Andy Reid on Kareem Hunt

Zero Turn Move of the Game presented by @badboymowers pic.twitter.com/WWWGEfKcaB

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 5, 2018

“[The team has] a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence, and when those guys are out there on the field, you know you can lis­ten to them,” Hunt said. “It’s still amaz­ing to be in a sit­u­a­tion like this.”

Still, the les­sons Hunt learned in Toledo stick with him the most: He fum­bled on his first NFL carry, but re­called the “ball se­cu­rity is job se­cu­rity” motto coaches preached and hasn’t fum­bled since. He re­mains con­nected to the Rock­ets, like how he vis­ited the team in Oc­to­ber and sent con­grat­u­la­tory mes­sages when UT won an elu­sive Mid-Amer­i­can Con­fer­ence ti­tle.

Run­ning back Terry Swan­son played a ma­jor part in UT’s cham­pi­on­ship team. He fin­ished sec­ond in the league in rush­ing yards and was tabbed first-team All-MAC, but for much of his col­le­giate ca­reer, he shared the back­field and a liv­ing space with Hunt. The room­mates were com­pet­i­tive — they vied over play­ing time and Mad­den video games — but al­ways stayed sup­port­ive.

Even now, as Swan­son pre­pares for the NFL draft, Hunt is guid­ing him through the pro­cess “like a big brother.”

“This guy took me un­der his wing and showed me how to pre­pare for foot­ball and for life,” Swan­son said. “He’s a com­pet­i­tive, en­er­getic guy, and he brings out the best in a lot of peo­ple.”

Aliquippa's Terry Swanson goes over 3,000 career rushing yards. Seventh player in Toledo history. Last was Kareem Hunt. Good company.

— Brad Everett (@BREAL412) November 3, 2017

Can­dle also talks to Hunt reg­u­larly, and he’ll be in the Ar­row­head Sta­dium crowd when Hunt — who Can­dle calls “an all-time” Rock­ets fa­vor­ite — faces the Ti­tans.

“Toledo meant an aw­ful lot to him,” Can­dle said. “He was a guy who al­ways played for the let­ter­ing across his jer­sey, and I think he’s cer­tainly do­ing that now for Kan­sas City.”

Contact Jimmy Miller at jmiller@theblade.com, 419-724-6050, or on Twitter @miller_jimmy.

First Published January 5, 2018, 8:10 p.m.