I don’t know how this article keeps getting bigger every week, but it does. Behold, thoughts on the most notable running back performances from week ten, featuring 77 players in total:

Monangai is probably the lowest-profile player who I’ve highlighted at the top of one of these CFB recap articles, but the season he’s having demands that he be taken seriously as an NFL Draft sleeper. After toiling away on bad Rutgers teams for the first few years of his career -- the Scarlet Knights finished 5-8 in 2021 and 4-8 in 2022, were bottom-three in the Big Ten in total offense in both years, and had an offensive line that ranked 121st and 89th, respectively, in the country in Pro Football Focus’ run-blocking grades in those seasons -- Monangai is now leading his conference in both rushing yards and yards from scrimmage (more than Marvin Harrison Jr.!) while spearheading the offense of a 6-3 squad.

Rutgers lost to Ohio State this weekend, but Monangai smashed, rushing for 159 yards on 24 carries against a defense that had only given up one 100-yard rushing game all season and that PFF ranks as the eighth-best in the entire country against the run. The highlight of the day was the following fake tush push, but even without it, Monangai shredded the Buckeye defense for nearly five yards per carry:

Monangai’s season-long efficiency marks are nice as well. He had a 98.4% Box-Adjusted Efficiency Rating while running behind Isiah Pacheco back in 2021, posted a 114.2% mark as the 1A in a committee last season, and has the following numbers so far in 2023 (with percentile ranks relative to historical draftees):

I haven’t studied tape on this guy yet, but from the glimpses I’ve caught of his highlight cut-ups, he’s a patient and probing runner behind the line of scrimmage who carries the ball Tiki Barber-style and bounces and slips off defenders despite an upright style. It’s unconventional, but it seems to work for him, and at 5’9 and 210 pounds, he’s built densely enough to contribute in the NFL.

Henderson continued his healthy resurgence with a dominant performance against Rutgers, running for 128 yards and a score on 22 attempts and adding another 80 yards on five receptions, including this big catch and run:

Now with two straight outings of more than 200 yards from scrimmage (and if we skip over the three games he missed with injury, he’s at four straight with more than 100 yards from scrimmage), we’re seeing lots of “Henderson is back” and “he’s finally looking like he did as a freshman” talk on the ol’ timeline. Respectfully, I beg to differ, because the Henderson we’re getting in 2023 is better than the one we saw in 2021 in some key areas.

I mentioned last week that Henderson has been a more consistent ball-carrier this season than he ever was before, but he’s also cooking up his highest ever BAE Rating (and the only one of his career above the historical mean for NFL draftees) and has been a bigger and (slightly) more versatile element of the Buckeye passing game than he was as an underclassman. 2023 marks the first season of Henderson’s career in which he has lined up out wide or in the slot on more than 10% of passing down snaps, as well as the first season in which he has posted a positive aDOT, with his targets coming an average of 1.6 yards downfield so far this year. He also has an 8.6% Target Share to date, eclipsing his previous career-high mark of 5.9%. His Route Diversity numbers still aren’t great, but we’re seeing glimpses of the versatility that Henderson is purported to possess as a receiver on top of getting the best rushing version we’ve yet seen of the former five-star recruit.

For what feels like the fourteenth time this season, Kaytron Allen outplayed Nick Singleton in the Penn State backfield, and this time handily. While Singleton managed just 20 yards on eight attempts versus Maryland, Allen turned his 14 carries into 91 yards and this touchdown:

Allen is beating Singleton in nearly every rushing efficiency category you could think of right now, including things like Chunk Rate that you would expect to be dominated by the more explosive of the two players. I’m not saying Allen is a better prospect than Singleton is, but he’s definitely a better college running back than Singleton is, at least this year (and I’d argue last year was closer to a wash than the yards per carry numbers make it look).

Along the same lines: what the hell is going on at Clemson, and why is Phil Mafah kicking Will Shipley’s ass so hard? With the latter out of the lineup against Notre Dame, the Tigers rode Mafah to a victory, as he produced more yards and as many touchdowns -- 186 and 2, respectively -- on his 36 attempts (and on a defense that PFF rates as the country’s 12th-best against the run!) than Shipley managed over 58 total carries in his last four appearances combined. I’m not saying Mafah is a better prospect than Shipley is, but he’s been a more effective runner by nearly any measure this season. Dabo Swinney expects Shipley back in the lineup against Georgia Tech but says they’ll go with a “hot hand” approach with their running backs.

It’s been a weirdly slow season for many of the most prominent running backs in college football, but several of those big names have come on strong in recent weeks. Perhaps no runner typifies that phenomenon more than Trey Benson, who is averaging 90.4 rushing yards per game and has just one outing of fewer than four yards per carry over his last five contests, a stretch standing in stark contrast to the first month of the season in which he averaged just 47.3 yards per game and fell below the four-yards-per-carry mark in three of four games. Most recently, his return to form saw him go 12-for-97 versus Pitt while making this long touchdown look too easy:

He hasn’t been the tackle-breaking maniac that he was a year ago, but Benson’s recent run of good play has resulted in his season-long rushing efficiency numbers returning to respectable territory.

An even more severe case of rubber-banding has come from Jarquez Hunter, who averaged 45.8 scrimmage yards per game and 3.82 yards per carry through mid-October but has bounced back to average 167 yards per game and 8.20 yards per carry in the three weeks since. On Saturday, he ripped apart the Vanderbilt defense to the tune of 183 yards and two touchdowns on 19 attempts, and put the repertoire on full display on this run:

Perhaps the most notable of the slogging runners this year has been Raheim Sanders, who entered last weekend’s game versus Florida with just 91 yards on 34 carries in three appearances. Against a solid Gator defense, though, Sanders had some of the old juice back, going for 103 yards on 18 attempts in an overtime victory.

There are a lot of players to get through this week, so the small school portion of this article is going to be a speed round in which I simply list the weekly stat-line and season-long efficiency numbers for each relevant player, starting with:

Antario Brown went 22-167-1 against Central Michigan, bringing his BAE Rating to 99.0% and his RSR to -8.8%.

Marion Lukes outdid Brown in the same game, posting 21-202-1 to bring his own efficiency marks to 122.3% and 0.7%, respectively.

Against Buffalo, Peny Boone continued his monster season with 125 yards and a touchdown on only 12 attempts. His BAE Rating is now a ridiculous 190.9% and his RSR a slightly-less-ridiculous-but-still-very-good 12.9%.

Ron Cook had a solid outing against Boone’s Toledo squad, going 17-97 on the ground and adding three receptions for 35 yards. He is an aggressively average Group of Five runner, now with marks of 107.6% and 0.0%, respectively, in BAE Rating and RSR in this his fifth season of collegiate ball.

Lorenzo Lingard put up 155 yards from scrimmage on 24 touches against Kent State, including 106 yards and a touchdown on the ground in addition to this impressive YAC work on a swing pass:

As the above clip and his top notch marks in BAE Rating and RSR show (he’s at 154.7% and 17.9%, respectively, in those metrics), Lingard is simply too good for the Mid-American Conference.

Kimani Vidal bounced back from a subpar performance against Texas State to post a 24-124-1 line on South Alabama. He trails only Ollie Gordon among nationwide backs in total rushing yards, has a BAE Rating of 124.5%, and an RSR of 4.7%.

Harrison Waylee bounced back from an 18-yard outing against Boise State to gain 128 yards on 29 attempts versus Colorado State, giving him more than 100 rushing yards in four of his six games on the year and bringing his seasonal marks in BAE Rating and RSR to 177.5% and 7.1%, respectively.

Another bounce-back: Kevorian Barnes gained just eight yards on seven carries against East Carolina last week and entered Saturday’s tilt with North Texas with no 100-yard rushing outings since September 9th, but he put up 16-129-2 on the Mean Green. His 87.1% BAE Rating and 0.9% RSR are especially underwhelming in light of the 165.9% BAE Rating he posted a season ago.

On the other side of things, Ayo Adeyi notched his second straight 100-yard performance by gaining 105 yards on 17 carries versus Barnes’ UTSA squad. His BAE Rating sits at 131.5% while his RSR is at 7.4%.

Arkansas State’s Ja’Quez Cross matched his highest single-game rushing total against an FBS opponent this season by going for a scintillating 58 yards on 13 attempts versus Louisiana on Saturday, but he also added six receptions for 66 yards. His BAE Rating of 155.6% is much more impressive than his -3.8% RSR. The team’s starting running back, Zak Wallace, went 15-88-1 in the game and has seasonal marks of 85.4% and 11.7%, respectively, in those metrics.

Shoutout to Michael Nelson for pointing out that Makhi Hughes is actually a redshirt freshman and is therefore not eligible for the title of “best true freshman” in the country as I suggested he might be last week. Unfazed by my mistake, Hughes ran for 105 yards on 25 carries against East Carolina this weekend, extending his lead over Blake Watson atop the MAC’s rushing yardage leaderboard and bringing his season-long marks to 115.4% and 22.1% in BAE Rating and RSR, respectively.

I’m typing way too much for this speed round to fulfill its purpose, but we press on. Gregory Desrosiers poses a legitimate threat to Bhayshul Tuten in the competition for the best name among current college running backs, and he more than doubled his season total in rushing yards with a 162-yard, three-touchdown game on just ten attempts against Merrimack on Saturday. The Warriors are an FCS team that entered the contest with just a .500 record, but you find your pleasures where you can. Desrosiers has a 110% BAE Rating and a -11.8% RSR on just over 30 attempts.

Anthony Watkins notched his first 100-yard rushing game of the season with a 24-146-1 line against Charlotte. His BAE Rating is 88.0% and his RSR is 2.1%.

Frank Gore Jr. is an enigma, with five games of sub-100 rushing yards across which he has averaged 2.52 yards per carry standing in contrast to four games of more than 100 rushing yards across which he has averaged 6.88 yards per carry. His most recent performance was of the latter variety, as he went 24-131-1 on the ground while adding 36 yards on two receptions against UL-Monroe on Saturday. His efficiency numbers remain bad on aggregate, with an 83.2% BAE Rating to go with a -4.6% RSR.

Jalen White put up 159 yards and two touchdowns on 17 attempts versus Texas State to give him 439 rushing yards and five scores in his last three games. His BAE Rating is 137.6% and his RSR is 10.1%.

Quinton Cooley’s 179-yard game against Louisiana Tech brings his season total to 981 rushing yards, 37 more than Malik Willis ever gained in a single year at Liberty. He is another aggressively average mid-major runner, with a 104.4% BAE Rating to go with a 0.4% RSR.

Elijah Young nearly doubled his seasonal yardage total with a 139-yard, two-touchdown game on just a dozen carries versus UTEP. He aspires to be an aggressively average mid-major runner, with a BAE Rating of 80.9% that rivals his -7.3% RSR in its sub-standardness.

With 132 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries against Boise State, Malik Sherrod has now run for 120+ in alternating weeks going back to September 30th, with sub-60-yard rushing performances mixed in between those smash games. He also caught four passes for 28 yards and made this house call on a kickoff:

He’s just 192 pounds, but Sherrod’s 144.2% BAE Rating and 13.8% RSR show him to be a markedly above-average mid-major runner.

With Ashton Jeanty out, George Holani stepped into the RB1 chair and was passable on the ground, going 19-79-1 versus Fresno State. In what must have been a tribute to Jeanty, however, Holani was also productive through the air, adding six receptions for 61 yards. Holani’s BAE Rating of 78.5% is not good, but as evidenced by his 7.8% RSR, he’s been much more consistent on a carry-to-carry basis this season than Boise State’s stud starter.

Does there exist a more seventh-year-of-your-Madden-franchise-with-a-league-full-of-autogenerated-players name than Le’Veon Moss? Do the kids even play franchise mode these days? I think the answer to both of those questions is “no”, and it also looks like we escaped Saturday with no serious injury to Moss despite the fact that he left Texas A&M’s three-point loss to Ole Miss early after taking an awkward hit. He racked up 52 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries before departing, after which Amari Daniels stepped in with 12-70-1 of his own. Daniels has been good this season, but I think Moss is one of the best second-year running back prospects in the country. While a mediocre offense has subdued his production and raw efficiency numbers, he runs hard, has good size, and is working with a 132.3% BAE Rating and a 15.6% RSR right now.

A guy making his case as the single best second-year running back prospect in the country this season is Ollie Gordon, who continued his reign of terror with 138 yards and two touchdowns on a 33-carry workload while leading the Cowboys to a Bedlam victory over Oklahoma. This run was a highlight:

And because I’m a big Gordon fan, here’s a little cut-up narrated by Pat McAfee (the second play is ridiculous):

Gordon remains the country’s leading rusher (by over 100 yards) and has a 167.1% BAE Rating to go with a -4.2% RSR.

Quinshon Judkins probably still holds the title of best second-year running back prospect in the country just by default, and he has now posted three straight 100-yard rushing games (as well as four in his last five) after starting the season with a four-game stretch at just over 50 rushing yards per game. This week, he ran for 102 and three touchdowns against A&M. He looked good, but his efficiency marks are still catching up after the early-season slog: his BAE Rating is just 81.5% and his RSR is -0.8%.

Omarion Hampton took a break from ripping apart ACC defenses to drop 15-144-2 on the Fighting Camels of Campbell University, an FCS program that entered the contest at 4-4. He scored both touchdowns (including this beauty) and gained 123 of his yards prior to halftime, and he ended the game with a 186-yard cushion over Jawhar Jordan on the ACC’s rushing leaderboard.

Trevor Etienne is having a better season than his lack of appearances in these weekly articles would suggest, and Saturday’s game against Arkansas saw him have probably his best all-around game of the year. The 80 yards he gained on a dozen carries is the second-most he’s totaled against an FBS opponent thus far in 2023, and the 43 yards he added on two receptions is the most he’s gained through the air in any single game in his career (and he returned three kicks for 83 yards). He looked good:

Etienne and Montrell Johnson have cannibalized each other out of high-end volume numbers this year, but Travis’ little brother has been the more effective of the two on a per-touch basis.

A guy who has not been cannibalized this season is Jaydn Ott, who was a bright spot in Cal’s blowout loss to Oregon. He caught four passes for 15 yards in addition to posting 20-93-1 on the ground. He has 849 rushing yards, nine touchdowns, and is averaging nearly six yards per carry despite running behind PFF’s 89th-ranked run-blocking unit and alongside the second-worst passing attack (by yards per game) in the Pac-12.

Damien Martinez has been similarly productive while playing on a much better Pac-12 squad, and he most recently ran for 115 yards on 21 carries against Colorado. He’s averaging over six yards per carry despite running into defensive fronts that are heavier, on average, than those seen by all but Leshon Williams and Blake Corum among Power Five backs with at least 100 carries.

Mark Fletcher hasn’t done a ton since an impressive showing in Miami’s season opener, but he ran ahead of both Donald Chaney and Henry Parrish in the Hurricanes’ matchup with NC State on Saturday, gaining 132 yards from scrimmage on 26 touches in a loss. He hasn’t been dominant in terms of team-relative efficiency so far this season, but he also hasn’t really received enough regular touches to get into any sort of groove. It will be interesting to see how the workload distribution in this backfield shakes out over the next few weeks.

Tawee Walker led the Oklahoma backfield last week, but it was sophomore Gavin Sawchuk who operated as the Sooners’ RB1 versus Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon. In just the third double-digit carry game of his career, Sawchuk went 13-for-111 and scooted for this long touchdown:

CJ Donaldson ran for 102 yards and scored two touchdowns on 14 attempts versus BYU, while freshman and backfield mate Jahiem White went for 146 yards on his 16 carries. White has received as much work in the last two games as he did all season prior, and I’d be shocked if he hasn’t now earned himself a permanent role in the offense. His 8.32-yard per-carry average is the highest among all Power Five runners with at least 50 carries on the season.

Kaden Feagin has clearly established himself as Illinois’ RB1 at this point, as his 22-89 line against Minnesota marks the third straight game in which he’s been handed the ball at least 19 times. He even caught the ball a little this weekend, moving way too fast for a man his size on this little swing pass touchdown:

The most noteworthy freshman performance this week came from CJ Baxter, who looked excellent in a breather-back role behind Jonathon Brooks in Texas’ overtime win over Kansas State. He ran for 90 yards and the following touchdown on just ten carries:

Brooks was also good against Kansas State, going 22-112-1. He’s fourth among Power Five backs in total rushing yards, is a hard runner who forces more missed tackles per attempt than any other player in the top ten of that list, and has rock solid team-relative efficiency numbers despite heading one of the most talented running back depth charts in the country.

Ten yards ahead of Brooks on that list is Tahj Brooks, who ran for 146 yards and a touchdown on 31 attempts versus TCU to bring his streak of 100+ scrimmage yards to seven games, which is one longer than Ollie Gordon’s current streak. He has some of the most severe efficiency splits I can think of, with a 69.5% BAE Rating offset by a 10.9% RSR.

Ja’Quinden Jackson is another big-bodied back who had a good game this weekend, as his 13-111-1 helped Utah to a blowout victory over Arizona State. It’s a bummer that the Sione Vaki-as-running back experience seems to be over, but Jackson is having a quality season and posting above-baseline marks in both BAE Rating and RSR.

With Louisville blowing out Virginia Tech, 225-pound fifth-year man Isaac Guerendo saw a bit more run than usual behind Jawhar Jordan, and he turned his eleven carries into 146 yards and three touchdowns. Jordan had 14-57-1 of his own and is currently ninth in the country in yards per carry among 50+ attempt runners. That efficiency means Guerendo’s team-relative numbers don’t look great, but he’s averaging a good 5.61 yards per carry and ranks 13th among 50+ attempt backs in yards after contact per attempt.

Jamal Haynes and Dontae Smith, with the latter going for 113 scrimmage yards and two scores on 18 touches while the former posted a 17-119-1 line on the ground. They’re both small, but they’ve also both been efficient this season, with a collective 5.98 mark in yards per carry.

The last of this week’s dynamic duos is Cincinnati’s Corey Kiner and Ryan Montgomery, who went 19-114-1 and 8-113-1 in a close loss to UCF. Myles Montgomery only managed 16 yards on his six attempts, but he’s been the best of these backs on a per-carry basis this season.

On the other side, UCF’s RJ Harvey turned 20 carries into 164 yards and three touchdowns and looked good while doing it:

He’s having a quietly excellent season, with a higher Dominator Rating than guys like Devin Neal, Blake Corum, and Quinshon Judkins to go with a higher per-carry average than Neal, Omarion Hampton, and Audric Estime.

Another lowkey dominant season is being had by Cody Schrader, who went 22-112-1 against Georgia’s front seven on Saturday. He’s gone over 100 yards from scrimmage in over half his games this year and now ranks sixth among Power Five runners in total rushing yards.

Jaylen Wright only needed eight carries to reach 113 yards and score a touchdown against UConn this weekend, doing most of his damage on this 82-yard house call:

That kind of thing is typical of Wright’s 2023, as he averages 1.17 yards per carry greater than the next-most efficient 50+ carry back in the SEC and goes for 10 or more yards on a ridiculous 27.3% of his attempts.

LeQuint Allen ran for a career-high 142 yards on 18 carries against Boston College. Syracuse isn’t very good, but Allen is above the national mean in yards per carry despite running behind PFF’s 123rd-ranked run-blocking offensive line.

It was a huge bummer that MarShawn Lloyd wasn’t able to play in what turned out to be a track meet against Washington, but super senior Austin Jones stepped into the RB1 chair and performed nicely. With 127 yards on just eleven carries, nearly a third of Jones’ season-long productivity was posted on Saturday.

The explosion of the weekend came on the other side of that matchup, as the Huskies’ Dillon Johnson ripped USC apart on his way to 256 yards and four touchdowns on 26 attempts. That Trojan defense is Swiss cheese, but Johnson is 218 pounds and just looks like an NFL back out in the open field:

He also has excellent team-relative efficiency numbers on a nationally-contending team, and the 149 passes he caught over three years at Mississippi State don’t hurt either.

Notre Dame lost to Clemson, but Audric Estime had his most well-rounded game of the season. Four receptions matched a career-high while 33 receiving yards is his second-highest total ever, and he of course did his thing on the ground by going 17-87-1. You could make a decent argument that Estime, not Braelon Allen, is the best two-down thumper in college football right now, as the former ranks fourth among Power Five backs in rushing and ninth in yards after contact per attempt.

Lastly, Bucky Irving matched Ollie Gordon’s six straight games with 100+ yards from scrimmage by gaining 117 and scoring a touchdown on 22 touches against Cal. He’s one of only eleven major program runners to maintain a per-touch average of at least seven yards this far into the year.