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Here are the categories you'll find both below and in the Google Doc spreadsheet linked at the bottom of the post:
2013 Position and Class. Position is the player's listed position from when the rosters were pulled in August; they could have changed.
Rushes, Yards, Yards per Carry. Self-explanatory.
Highlight Opportunities, Highlight Yards, Highlight Yards per Opportunity. Highlight yards are a concept I first discussed at Football Outsiders in 2010.
A few months ago, FO introduced the idea of "Second Level Yards" and "Open Field Yards" for NFL running backs. These were the remaining yards that were left after each break in the baselines for Adjusted Line Yards. I've done the same thing here for college backs, with two differences. First, we're adding together both "Second Level" Yards (5-10 past the line) and "Open Field" Yards (11+ past the line). Second, we're counting only half the Second Level Yards, just as the line gets half credit for these yards. We'll call this stat "Highlight Yards," because these longer runs are the ones that show up on the highlight shows. A three-yard run gets zero Highlight Yards. A 70-yard run gets 63 Highlight Yards. The more Highlight Yards, the more explosive the runner was, and the less his overall yardage and POE totals were due to the offensive line blocking for him.
Highlight Opportunities, meanwhile, signify the number of opportunities a runner got at least five yards downfield. If Line Yards deem the line mostly responsible for the first few yards (and 50% responsible for the few yards that follow), then quantifying "opportunities" basically tells us how many times the line did its job. I am using Opportunities for the Highlight Yardage average, which is different than what you may have seen in the past (when I used Highlight Yards per Carry).
Opportunity Rate. This is the ratio of Highlight Opportunities to carries, or the percentage of a player's carries that gained at least five yards. We know intuitively that the first five yards aren't ONLY the line's responsibility, so this helps differentiate players from teammates a bit. It also helps to give us both explosiveness (Highlight Yards per Opp) and efficiency (Opp Rate) aspects to a runner's profile.
Team Opportunity Rate. This is the Opportunity Rate for the player's entire team.
I'm kind of at an in-between point with rushing stats. Adj. POE (explained in the same FO link above) has been a go-to of sorts through the years, but I've concluded that it's just not good enough to use any further. It doesn't do a good enough job of quantifying line impact, and it's just terribly inconsistent from year to year. I don't have a replacement yet, however, so for this year's SBN previews, I'll just be sharing the raw highlight yardage and opportunity rates and going from there. If somebody wants to jump in and help create a more comprehensive rushing stat, bring it on.
One thing you'll notice: Quarterbacks have, on average, much higher Opportunity Rates than running backs. This makes sense considering the element of surprise for most quarterbacks. Even designed quarterback rushes often have a secondary, "fooled you" vibe, and a lot of QB rushes (scrambles) aren't planned at all. So players like Johnny Manziel, who tended to only choose to run when things were wide open as he got banged up later in the 2013 season, have a really high Opportunity Rate, and it wasn't really the line's doing.
Anyway, here you go. Enjoy. The Top 100 rushers according to Highlight Yards are listed below, and here's a Google Spreadsheet with everybody's stats. Download, tinker, create, etc. (In the file, the "Rank" listed for each player is for only the 252 players with at least 84 carries.)
Receiver stats coming later this week.
Offense | Player | Position | Class | Rushes | Yards | Yds/ Carry |
Hlt Opps | Hlt Yds | Rk | Hlt/ Opp |
Opp Rate | Team Opp Rate |
Boston College | Andre Williams | RB | SR | 355 | 2177 | 6.13 | 133 | 1063.7 | 1 | 8.00 | 37.5% | 38.1% |
Northern Illinois | Jordan Lynch | QB | SR | 282 | 1980 | 7.02 | 140 | 868.0 | 2 | 6.20 | 49.6% | 49.3% |
Wisconsin | Melvin Gordon | RB | SO | 206 | 1609 | 7.81 | 110 | 782.2 | 3 | 7.11 | 53.4% | 48.8% |
Colorado State | Kapri Bibbs | RB | SO | 281 | 1741 | 6.20 | 113 | 770.7 | 4 | 6.82 | 40.2% | 40.9% |
Washington | Bishop Sankey | RB | JR | 327 | 1866 | 5.71 | 138 | 751.2 | 5 | 5.44 | 42.2% | 41.9% |
Western Kentucky | Antonio Andrews | RB | SR | 267 | 1730 | 6.48 | 128 | 709.8 | 6 | 5.55 | 47.9% | 43.4% |
Wisconsin | James White | RB | SR | 221 | 1444 | 6.53 | 95 | 700.5 | 7 | 7.37 | 43.0% | 48.8% |
BYU | Taysom Hill | QB | SO | 209 | 1573 | 7.53 | 113 | 690.9 | 8 | 6.11 | 54.1% | 42.3% |
Nebraska | Ameer Abdullah | RB | JR | 281 | 1690 | 6.01 | 123 | 667.9 | 9 | 5.43 | 43.8% | 42.5% |
Ohio State | Braxton Miller | QB | JR | 150 | 1201 | 8.01 | 79 | 662.9 | 10 | 8.39 | 52.7% | 55.7% |
Bowling Green | Travis Greene | RB | SO | 279 | 1594 | 5.71 | 125 | 648.1 | 11 | 5.18 | 44.8% | 45.6% |
Arizona | Ka'Deem Carey | RB | JR | 350 | 1889 | 5.40 | 143 | 636.2 | 12 | 4.45 | 40.9% | 42.7% |
LSU | Jeremy Hill | RB | SO | 203 | 1401 | 6.90 | 92 | 627.9 | 13 | 6.83 | 45.3% | 42.6% |
Auburn | Tre Mason | RB | JR | 317 | 1816 | 5.73 | 140 | 600.3 | 14 | 4.29 | 44.2% | 48.4% |
Ohio State | Carlos Hyde | RB | SR | 208 | 1521 | 7.31 | 119 | 598.2 | 15 | 5.03 | 57.2% | 55.7% |
Stanford | Tyler Gaffney | RB | SR | 329 | 1700 | 5.17 | 123 | 597.5 | 16 | 4.86 | 37.4% | 39.4% |
Baylor | Lache Seastrunk | RB | JR | 158 | 1170 | 7.41 | 80 | 577.2 | 17 | 7.22 | 50.6% | 43.0% |
Missouri | Henry Josey | RB | JR | 174 | 1166 | 6.70 | 72 | 573.2 | 18 | 7.96 | 41.4% | 45.5% |
Auburn | Nick Marshall | QB | JR | 153 | 1193 | 7.80 | 86 | 566.7 | 19 | 6.59 | 56.2% | 48.4% |
Indiana | Tevin Coleman | RB | SO | 131 | 958 | 7.31 | 47 | 562.0 | 20 | 11.96 | 35.9% | 42.0% |
Boise State | Jay Ajayi | RB | SO | 249 | 1425 | 5.72 | 100 | 558.1 | 21 | 5.58 | 40.2% | 39.5% |
Navy | Keenan Reynolds | QB | SO | 283 | 1466 | 5.18 | 112 | 551.1 | 22 | 4.92 | 39.6% | 46.0% |
Buffalo | Branden Oliver | RB | SR | 310 | 1535 | 4.95 | 120 | 541.8 | 23 | 4.52 | 38.7% | 37.2% |
Utah State | Joey DeMartino | RB | SR | 221 | 1221 | 5.52 | 84 | 537.8 | 24 | 6.40 | 38.0% | 37.3% |
Alabama | T.J. Yeldon | RB | SO | 207 | 1235 | 5.97 | 87 | 531.8 | 25 | 6.11 | 42.0% | 48.0% |
Offense | Player | Position | Class | Rushes | Yards | Yds/ Carry |
Hlt Opps | Hlt Yds | Rk | Hlt/ Opp |
Opp Rate | Team Opp Rate |
Army | Terry Baggett | RB | JR | 141 | 1113 | 7.89 | 82 | 522.1 | 26 | 6.37 | 58.2% | 41.2% |
South Carolina | Mike Davis | RB | SO | 203 | 1183 | 5.83 | 82 | 514.2 | 27 | 6.27 | 40.4% | 40.8% |
BYU | Jamaal Williams | RB | SO | 217 | 1233 | 5.68 | 80 | 509.9 | 28 | 6.37 | 36.9% | 42.3% |
San Diego State | Adam Muema | RB | JR | 256 | 1244 | 4.86 | 93 | 503.5 | 29 | 5.41 | 36.3% | 36.1% |
Oregon | Marcus Mariota | QB | SO | 78 | 856 | 10.97 | 52 | 486.4 | 30 | 9.35 | 66.7% | 49.0% |
Rice | Charles Ross | RB | SR | 211 | 1280 | 6.07 | 102 | 484.0 | 31 | 4.75 | 48.3% | 41.7% |
Tulsa | Trey Watts | RB | SR | 268 | 1329 | 4.96 | 103 | 479.4 | 32 | 4.65 | 38.4% | 34.6% |
Central Florida | Storm Johnson | RB | JR | 213 | 1139 | 5.35 | 75 | 476.8 | 33 | 6.36 | 35.2% | 37.9% |
Michigan State | Jeremy Langford | RB | JR | 292 | 1422 | 4.87 | 126 | 475.0 | 34 | 3.77 | 43.2% | 40.9% |
West Virginia | Charles Sims | RB | SR | 208 | 1095 | 5.26 | 72 | 470.6 | 35 | 6.54 | 34.6% | 34.9% |
New Mexico | Kasey Carrier | RB | SR | 189 | 1119 | 5.92 | 78 | 465.8 | 36 | 5.97 | 41.3% | 46.5% |
Minnesota | David Cobb | RB | JR | 237 | 1202 | 5.07 | 81 | 464.1 | 37 | 5.73 | 34.2% | 38.9% |
Wyoming | Brett Smith | QB | JR | 99 | 742 | 7.49 | 45 | 463.5 | 38 | 10.30 | 45.5% | 40.1% |
Arizona | B.J. Denker | QB | SR | 164 | 1023 | 6.24 | 82 | 454.4 | 39 | 5.54 | 50.0% | 42.7% |
UNLV | Tim Cornett | RB | SR | 264 | 1284 | 4.86 | 90 | 452.5 | 40 | 5.03 | 34.1% | 35.3% |
Toledo | David Fluellen | RB | SR | 166 | 1114 | 6.71 | 77 | 452.1 | 41 | 5.87 | 46.4% | 46.0% |
East Carolina | Vintavious Cooper | RB | SR | 230 | 1193 | 5.19 | 91 | 450.2 | 42 | 4.95 | 39.6% | 38.2% |
Georgia Tech | Robert Godhigh | RB | SR | 79 | 744 | 9.42 | 44 | 449.7 | 43 | 10.22 | 55.7% | 44.1% |
Louisiana Tech | Kenneth Dixon | RB | SO | 151 | 917 | 6.07 | 68 | 447.8 | 44 | 6.59 | 45.0% | 44.0% |
Eastern Michigan | Bronson Hill | RB | JR | 195 | 1093 | 5.61 | 78 | 446.1 | 45 | 5.72 | 40.0% | 38.4% |
North Texas | Brandin Byrd | RB | SR | 202 | 1075 | 5.32 | 71 | 443.5 | 46 | 6.25 | 35.1% | 35.2% |
UL-Lafayette | Elijah McGuire | RB | FR | 103 | 853 | 8.28 | 51 | 440.6 | 47 | 8.64 | 49.5% | 43.9% |
Oklahoma | Brennan Clay | RB | SR | 175 | 957 | 5.47 | 67 | 438.3 | 48 | 6.54 | 38.3% | 41.8% |
Marshall | Steward Butler | RB | SO | 87 | 765 | 8.79 | 41 | 435.9 | 49 | 10.63 | 47.1% | 40.6% |
Oregon | Byron Marshall | RB | SO | 168 | 1038 | 6.18 | 78 | 433.3 | 50 | 5.56 | 46.4% | 49.0% |
Offense | Player | Position | Class | Rushes | Yards | Yds/ Carry |
Hlt Opps | Hlt Yds | Rk | Hlt/ Opp |
Opp Rate | Team Opp Rate |
UCLA | Brett Hundley | QB | SO | 125 | 949 | 7.59 | 68 | 432.7 | 51 | 6.36 | 54.4% | 39.9% |
Tennessee | Rajion Neal | RB | SR | 215 | 1124 | 5.23 | 83 | 428.8 | 52 | 5.17 | 38.6% | 44.3% |
Florida State | Devonta Freeman | RB | JR | 173 | 1016 | 5.87 | 73 | 426.3 | 53 | 5.84 | 42.2% | 47.5% |
Kansas State | John Hubert | RB | SR | 198 | 1048 | 5.29 | 87 | 422.1 | 54 | 4.85 | 43.9% | 43.1% |
Miami-FL | Duke Johnson | RB | SO | 145 | 920 | 6.34 | 63 | 409.6 | 55 | 6.50 | 43.4% | 42.5% |
Marshall | Essray Taliaferro | RB | SR | 221 | 1140 | 5.16 | 82 | 408.6 | 56 | 4.98 | 37.1% | 40.6% |
Air Force | Anthony LaCoste | RB | SR | 135 | 890 | 6.59 | 56 | 405.7 | 57 | 7.24 | 41.5% | 42.3% |
USC | Javorius Allen | RB | SO | 134 | 774 | 5.78 | 52 | 403.5 | 58 | 7.76 | 38.8% | 38.4% |
New Mexico | Cole Gautsche | QB | SO | 115 | 872 | 7.58 | 63 | 400.6 | 59 | 6.36 | 54.8% | 46.5% |
Kansas | James Sims | RB | SR | 230 | 1110 | 4.83 | 91 | 398.5 | 60 | 4.38 | 39.6% | 37.2% |
Arkansas | Alex Collins | RB | FR | 190 | 1026 | 5.40 | 80 | 398.0 | 61 | 4.98 | 42.1% | 42.5% |
Mississippi State | Dak Prescott | QB | SO | 126 | 897 | 7.12 | 63 | 395.5 | 62 | 6.28 | 50.0% | 40.4% |
Wyoming | Shaun Wick | RB | SO | 166 | 979 | 5.90 | 68 | 395.2 | 63 | 5.81 | 41.0% | 40.1% |
Indiana | Stephen Houston | RB | SR | 112 | 753 | 6.72 | 51 | 394.4 | 64 | 7.73 | 45.5% | 42.0% |
Rutgers | Paul James | RB | JR | 156 | 881 | 5.65 | 63 | 384.6 | 65 | 6.10 | 40.4% | 36.1% |
Clemson | Roderick McDowell | RB | SR | 189 | 1025 | 5.42 | 86 | 377.6 | 66 | 4.39 | 45.5% | 42.5% |
Baylor | Shock Linwood | RB | FR | 128 | 881 | 6.88 | 61 | 377.1 | 67 | 6.18 | 47.7% | 43.0% |
Georgia | Todd Gurley | RB | SO | 165 | 989 | 5.99 | 76 | 375.1 | 68 | 4.94 | 46.1% | 39.5% |
Arkansas | Jonathan Williams | RB | SO | 150 | 900 | 6.00 | 62 | 373.3 | 69 | 6.02 | 41.3% | 42.5% |
Texas State | Robert Lowe | RB | SO | 164 | 945 | 5.76 | 68 | 369.0 | 70 | 5.43 | 41.5% | 41.2% |
Maryland | C.J. Brown | QB | SR | 118 | 736 | 6.24 | 44 | 368.2 | 71 | 8.37 | 37.3% | 37.2% |
Arizona State | Marion Grice | RB | SR | 191 | 996 | 5.21 | 81 | 365.4 | 72 | 4.51 | 42.4% | 41.5% |
Northern Illinois | Cameron Stingily | RB | JR | 203 | 1119 | 5.51 | 98 | 363.1 | 73 | 3.71 | 48.3% | 49.3% |
Akron | Jawon Chisholm | RB | JR | 188 | 892 | 4.74 | 60 | 359.7 | 74 | 6.00 | 31.9% | 37.0% |
Florida State | Karlos Williams | DB | JR | 91 | 730 | 8.02 | 48 | 357.6 | 75 | 7.45 | 52.7% | 47.5% |
Offense | Player | Position | Class | Rushes | Yards | Yds/ Carry |
Hlt Opps | Hlt Yds | Rk | Hlt/ Opp |
Opp Rate | Team Opp Rate |
Auburn | Corey Grant | RB | JR | 66 | 647 | 9.80 | 38 | 357.4 | 76 | 9.41 | 57.6% | 48.4% |
UAB | Jordan Howard | RB | FR | 145 | 881 | 6.08 | 64 | 354.8 | 77 | 5.54 | 44.1% | 42.3% |
Arkansas State | Michael Gordon | RB | SO | 112 | 754 | 6.73 | 46 | 354.0 | 78 | 7.70 | 41.1% | 42.7% |
Ball State | Jahwan Edwards | RB | JR | 212 | 1110 | 5.24 | 89 | 353.8 | 79 | 3.98 | 42.0% | 39.6% |
San Diego State | Donnel Pumphrey | RB | FR | 125 | 752 | 6.02 | 46 | 353.2 | 80 | 7.68 | 36.8% | 36.1% |
Michigan | Devin Gardner | QB | JR | 131 | 748 | 5.71 | 62 | 351.2 | 81 | 5.66 | 47.3% | 34.5% |
South Florida | Marcus Shaw | RB | SR | 156 | 765 | 4.90 | 46 | 349.7 | 82 | 7.60 | 29.5% | 27.3% |
Florida Atlantic | Jaquez Johnson | QB | SO | 152 | 870 | 5.72 | 68 | 347.0 | 83 | 5.10 | 44.7% | 35.0% |
Syracuse | Jerome Smith | RB | JR | 200 | 914 | 4.57 | 61 | 342.8 | 84 | 5.62 | 30.5% | 36.8% |
LSU | Terrence Magee | RB | JR | 86 | 626 | 7.28 | 39 | 338.1 | 85 | 8.67 | 45.3% | 42.6% |
Virginia | Kevin Parks | RB | JR | 227 | 1031 | 4.54 | 73 | 337.8 | 86 | 4.63 | 32.2% | 34.8% |
Louisville | Dominique Brown | RB | JR | 163 | 825 | 5.06 | 63 | 335.4 | 87 | 5.32 | 38.7% | 42.6% |
Maryland | Brandon Ross | RB | SO | 166 | 776 | 4.67 | 65 | 335.3 | 88 | 5.16 | 39.2% | 37.2% |
UAB | Darrin Reaves | RB | JR | 202 | 934 | 4.62 | 70 | 332.4 | 89 | 4.75 | 34.7% | 42.3% |
Toledo | Kareem Hunt | RB | FR | 137 | 866 | 6.32 | 66 | 332.0 | 90 | 5.03 | 48.2% | 46.0% |
Texas A&M | Johnny Manziel | QB | SO | 124 | 899 | 7.25 | 80 | 330.1 | 91 | 4.13 | 64.5% | 51.4% |
Ohio | Beau Blankenship | RB | SR | 204 | 910 | 4.46 | 58 | 326.8 | 92 | 5.63 | 28.4% | 34.6% |
Illinois | Josh Ferguson | RB | SO | 141 | 779 | 5.52 | 55 | 323.9 | 93 | 5.89 | 39.0% | 40.7% |
Arizona State | Taylor Kelly | QB | JR | 134 | 784 | 5.85 | 56 | 316.0 | 94 | 5.64 | 41.8% | 41.5% |
Pittsburgh | James Conner | RB | FR | 146 | 799 | 5.47 | 60 | 313.9 | 95 | 5.23 | 41.1% | 43.5% |
Oregon | Thomas Tyner | RB | FR | 115 | 698 | 6.07 | 50 | 313.0 | 96 | 6.26 | 43.5% | 49.0% |
Ball State | Horactio Banks | RB | SO | 95 | 595 | 6.26 | 36 | 306.7 | 97 | 8.52 | 37.9% | 39.6% |
Oklahoma State | Desmond Roland | RB | JR | 176 | 811 | 4.61 | 58 | 304.2 | 98 | 5.24 | 33.0% | 37.8% |
Kansas State | Daniel Sams | QB | SO | 150 | 823 | 5.49 | 70 | 303.2 | 99 | 4.33 | 46.7% | 43.1% |
New Mexico | Crusoe Gongbay | RB | JR | 97 | 592 | 6.10 | 34 | 298.2 | 100 | 8.77 | 35.1% | 46.5% |