College Football Rushing Leaders’ High School Origins

This season, nine college football running backs have already eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark with conference championships and bowl games still remaining. Let’s take a look back and explore the high schools that produced the explosive talents that are the college football rushing leaders.

9. Kyren Williams (Notre Dame) – Williams has tallied 1,011 rushing yards for the Fighting Irish this year. He attended St. John Vianney High School in Kirkwood, Missouri, where he rushed for 2,035 yards and 40 touchdowns his senior year.

8. Jaret Patterson (Buffalo) – Patterson’s 1,025-yard season for the Bulls was aided greatly by his infamous 409-yard and eight-touchdown performance against Kent State. At St. Vincent Pallotti High School (Maryland) his senior season, he earned an All-State Honorable Mention by grinding 2,045 yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground.

7. Najee Harris (Alabama) – The Crimson Tide are known for developing running backs and have done well with Harris, as he totals 1,084 yards. Harris was a five-star prospect out of Antioch High School (California), where the  2017 U.S. Army All-American Bowl selection accumulated 7,973 total yards and 99 total touchdowns in his career.

6. Kevin Harris (South Carolina) – Harris, a native of Hinesville, Georgia, has the longest run of anyone on this list, which was an 88-yard scamper against Vanderbilt. He has 1,138 yards rushing this season. Harris attended the Bradwell Institute and rushed for 3,236 yards and 38 TDs in his junior and senior years.

5. Javonte Williams (North Carolina) – Shockingly, Williams is the first of two UNC backs on this list. He slightly edges out Kevin Harris with 1,140 rushing yards this season. Javonte started for Wallace-Rose Hill High School (North Carolina) as a three-star recruit and racked up 27 touchdowns on the ground to accompany 2,287 yards and a state championship victory.

4. Khalil Herbert (Virginia Tech) – The transfer from Kansas has 1,182 yards rushing but only eight rushing scores this season. He served as the leading rusher in a three-back committee for American Heritage High School in Plantation, Florida, collecting 861 yards on 7.3 yards per carry.

3. Michael Carter (North Carolina) – Carter is the second half of the Tarheels’ dynamic rushing attack, running for 1,245 yards. Carter had a monstrous senior campaign at Navarre High School (Florida), as he bulldozed for 2,536 yards and 41 TDs solely on the ground.

2. Sincere McCormick (UTSA) – The sophomore Roadrunner has scampered for 1,345 yards this season, good for second in all of college football. The three-star prospect from Judson (Texas) rushed for 1,489 yards his senior year, contributing to an explosive Rocket offense.

1. Breece Hall (Iowa State) – College football’s leading rusher has 1,357 yards and added 2,127 more yards to his career total in 2018 at Northwest (Kansas). Hall is no stranger to competition at the running back position, as he was one of three backs who rushed for over 1,000 yards for Northwest in 2018.

Written by: Dhruv Mohan