Top 5 running backs in college football for 2018

After revealing my most intriguing storylines heading into the 2018 college football season, I wanted to release my top five positional rankings, like I did a year ago as well. To make the criteria clear – this list is about the actual college players, as a combination of what they showed me last season and what I expect them to be in 2018. So this is not a look forward to these young men as draft prospects in 2019. We'll kick things off with the running backs.

1. Bryce Love, Stanford

It was a big task for Love to replace Christian McCaffrey, but like former star for the Cardinal who is now suiting up for the Panthers, Love finished last season as the runner-up for the Heisman trophy, as well as earning the Doak Walker trophy and Consensus All-American honors, after a season in which he amassed 2218 yards and 19 TDs on the ground. Running behind a massive offensive line, Love is very patient only needs a crease to explode through and then has the sprinter speed to go the distance on any given play.

While he was the workhorse for a run-centric Stanford offense, Love had to work through a banged up ankle late in the season. However, he displayed a ton of toughness, fighting through that.

2. Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin

This Badger running back broke out in a similar way last season. Taylor came in at 18 years old and put up a new freshman record with 1977 rushing yards and reached the end-zone 13 times on 299 carries. He runs with a lot of power behind his pads and consistently falls forward at the end of the play.

Taylor lets his big O-line go to work and then has a tremendous burst through the line. He might have to bang his way through defenses for large portions of the game, but at some point he always breaks a long run and decides the game for Wisconsin. He didn’t get a lot of snaps on passing downs as a freshman and fumbled six times, but he should be better in both areas with a year under his belt.

Big Ten Championship - Ohio State v Wisconsin

3. J.K. Dobbins, Ohio State

If it wasn’t for Taylor and Boston College’s A.J. Dillon both finishing in the top ten for rushing yards as freshmen last season, everybody would be talking about J.K. Dobbins. Ohio State had their mind set on featuring Mike Weber heavily, but the youngster just was too impressive to take a backseat.

On less than 200 carries he came up with over 1400 yards on the ground and reached 170 yards on three different occasions, including the Big 10 Championship game against Wisconsin, who had the number one ranked rushing defense in the country. His combination of explosiveness and power is special. When I talked about my biggest storylines for the 2018 college football season, I already mentioned that he reminds me of Zeke a few years back.

4. Rodney Anderson, Oklahoma

I don’t think anybody in college football had a better final seven weeks in 2017 than Anderson. The 6’2”, 220 pound back totaled 1343 yards from scrimmage during that stretch, once he surpassed ten touches in a game. With his violent running style he looked so much like a young Beastmode.

Anderson has a strong, thick lower body that enables him to run through arm tackles without breaking a sweat and he packs a mean stiff-arm to keep defenders away from his body and push himself off. We have yet to see if he can keep up the production without Baker Mayfield next to him in the backfield, but he is able to punish opposing defenses and showed some involvement in the passing game as well.

5. David Montgomery, Iowa State

He might be not be a household name quite yet, but this Cyclone running back is an outstanding all-around player. His head coach called him a culture changer because of how hard he runs with the ball in his hands. Yet, Montgomery is much more than just a bruiser. While I love the forward lean he runs with, he has to have ankles of steel with the cuts he performs and the stuff he does in the open field is unheard of for a 220-pounder.

That led him to force the most tackles for anybody in college football over the last four years. Montgomery had some incredible individual effort plays and despite almost 300 touches his lone fumble came in their bowl game, where I thought he should have gotten a touchdown instead.