We were spoiled last season with Saquon Barkley and Derrius Guice, but there won’t be a shortage of elite running backs in 2018. Here are the best of the best.
If last season was the year of the quarterback in college football – with future NFL players like Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen, and Sam Darnold all battling on the gridiron – 2018 may very well be the year of the running back.
The position has gone through a lot of swings of favor in the NFL, with many teams preferring to operate with a running back-by-committee system, but there are no shortage of tremendous backs in college this year, many of whom are shouldering the burden of an entire backfield for their respective teams. It’s one of the most loaded positional groups in the nation this year.
That’s not even mentioning the high school class of 2017, which produced a handful of backs who were able to contribute and thrive right away at the FBS level. Seeing this class take the next steps as sophomores is going to be absolutely thrilling.
But enough chatter. Entering the 2018 season, here are the top 15 running backs in college football.