With a star quarterback in Rocco Becht and a pair of wide receivers who just got taken in the 2025 NFL Draft, running back Abu Sama III has somewhat fallen through the cracks of national recognition. It likely also doesn’t help that his sophomore season lacked the general explosion of his debut 2023 campaign, where he averaged 7.3 yards per carry while rushing for 614 yards and six touchdowns.
From two years with zero carries at Louisville to two years with the UMass Minutemen and a transfer to the Memphis Tigers, Greg Desrosiers Jr. has had an unconventional college football career. It’s pretty apt, because he’s an unconventional player. A running back with as much of a presence in the passing game as on the ground, he’s tallied just 112 carries and 739 rushing yards in five years.
Fluff Bothwell came up shy of 1,000 yards for the South Alabama Jaguars in the 2024 season, but averaged 7.5 yards per carry while leading the Sun Belt with 13 rushing touchdowns and earning CSN Freshman All-American honors. He also landed as the 26th-ranked student-athlete in the CSN Top 100 Returning Players for the 2025 season following his transfer to the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Jeremiyah gets all the Love in the Notre Dame backfield, but overlook Jadarian Price at your peril. The fourth-year running back has never been tasked with a full workload, but he showcased his capability last fall when asked to run the rock 120 times during the Fighting Irish’s run to the title game. He tallied 746 yards and seven scores while averaging 6.2 yards per carry, with 4.50 coming after contact.
At 5’9″ and 220 pounds, Terion Stewart has put the “bowling ball” into the Bowling Green Falcons for the past four seasons as one of the most dangerous rushers for defenders to attempt to contact. Heading into his fifth year, Stewart has made a living out of encouraging, embracing, and eliminating contact, routinely running over some of college football’s fiercest tacklers with ease.
The New Mexico State Aggies lost leading rusher Seth McGowan to the transfer portal. Still, they managed to snag one of the top 25 college football running backs after contact in former Old Dominion Monarchs and Cal Golden Bears back Kadarius Calloway. Although Calloway saw minimal action in the ACC a year ago, he’s just a season removed from leading the Sun Belt with 7.1 yards per carry.
Former Georgia State running back Freddie Brock entered the transfer portal this offseason as one of the country’s most highly sought-after running backs. He lands with the Oklahoma State Cowboys as a potential replacement for the NFL-bound Ollie Gordon II. While those are significant shoes to fill, Brock has shown in the past two seasons that he’s more than capable of making his mark.
Having already placed Darius Taylor in the top 25 college football running backs after contact, the Minnesota Golden Gophers double up with the addition of former Marshall Thundering Herd rusher A.J. Turner. The 6’0″, 195-pound back had some of the eye-catching performances of the 2024 campaign as the Herd trampled to the Sun Belt title, including a 177-yard outing against Georgia State.
Ahmad Hardy led all freshmen running backs with 1,351 rushing yards for the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks last fall, parlaying that performance into a transfer portal opportunity with the Missouri Tigers. While he’s yet to prove himself at the SEC level, the young rusher has already established himself as one of the top 25 college football running backs when it comes to creating after contact.
A nickname like “Hollywood” suggests a flashiness without substance, and there are undoubtedly some finesse elements to what Daylan Smothers brings to the table as a former four-star running back. However, his success as a 5’11”, 195-pound redshirt-freshman for the NC State Wolfpack following a transfer from the Oklahoma Sooners is predicated on something entirely different.
