SEC Football history: 50 best players of all time

33. Best SEC football players of all time: Charles Alexander, LSU football

There have been plenty of historic running backs to come through the LSU football program, including Charles Alexander. Recruited by a legendary running back in Jerry Stovall, Alexander began his career as a backup, only to take over and become one of the more dominant backs the SEC has ever seen.

In 1977, Alexander finally got out of Terry Robiskie’s shadow and took over as the feature back for the Tigers. The SEC Player of the Year that season, Alexander rushed for a school record of 1,686 yards, a mark that stood nearly 40 years before Leonard Fournette broke it during the 2015 college football season.

All told, Alexander was twice named an All-American, twice named All-SEC, and had some incredible moments playing for the Tigers. He rushed for nearly 250 yards and four touchdowns against Oregon in 1977 and twice finished in the top-10 in the Heisman Trophy voting, a testament to how good he was on a national level.

A first-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1979, Alexander did have a tremendous NFL career but is still regarded as a legend at LSU. He was inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, as the man affectionately known as “Alexander the Great” was just that.