College football has been around for 151 years and the best running back ever played for Georgia football from 1980-to-1982.
Herschel Walker is the greatest running back in college football history. The entire Georgia football fanbase knows this. Many people outside the fan base know this as well, but if you spend enough time on sports news websites, channels, blogs and social media, you’ll see cases made for several other running backs.
Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders are popular names in the “greatest running back” discussion. You might hear or see someone bring up Archie Griffin, OJ Simpson or Ron Dayne. But there’s no case for those players, there’s no case for anyone else.
Certainly, there are other running backs with more career rushing yards or better rushing seasons that Walker. Many running backs have more touchdowns and better yards-per-carry averages. The argument for who the greatest running back of all-time should go beyond those stats.
To figure out who the greatest is, the questions you should ask are, “which running back was most important to his team,” and then ask, “what did that team accomplish.” The answer to that first question is Herschel Walker, the answer to the second is the 1980 National Championship, three-straight SEC Championships and a 33-3 record in three years.
No team in college football history accomplished more by putting so much on the shoulders of one man than Georgia football with Herschel Walker. Not Oklahoma State with Barry Sanders. Not Oklahoma with Billy Sims. Definitely not Auburn with Bo Jackson.
Herschel Walker was Georgia’s offense.
In Herschel Walker’s three seasons with Georgia football, the team accumulated 13,019 yards. 5,502 of those yards belonged to Herschel Walker. Walker accounted for 42.3-percent of Georgia’s yards over his entire career.
Walker’s chunk of Georgia’s offense also reflects in the total number of plays that involved him with the ball. The Bulldogs ran 2,417 plays in Walker’s three seasons, 1,020 either involved Walker receiving a handoff or a pass.
Georgia football really didn’t have a plan-B when Walker played. Buck Belue had a pair of decent passing seasons with Lindsay Scott catching a vast majority of his passes, but that was it for Georgia’s offense. None of Walker’s backup running backs carried the ball more than 70 times or gain more than 400 yards in any season.
Despite Georgia football placing the weight of its entire offense on Walker’s shoulders, he never faltered and opposing defenses never stopped him. Walker played in 36 Georgia football games, eclipsing 100 yards in 28 of them.
Walker averaged 5.4 yards per scrimmage throughout his career and he owns the school record for rushing yards per game with 159.4. No one in Georgia football history comes anywhere close to that average. His nine 200-yard games is another school mark no one is close to catching.
Georgia football’s over-reliance on Walker rarely cost it. Georgia won a national championship in 1980, only lost three games and won the SEC Championship ever year with Walker. After a great second half by Walker in the 1982 Sugar Bowl against Penn State, the Bulldogs were one defensive stop away from possibly a second title in three years.
Opposing teams knew what was coming, a toss or handoff to Walker, and they never had an answer. Simply put, Walker dominated and the nation took notice. Walker won the Heisman trophy in 1982 after finishing third in voting as a freshman and second as a sophomore.
No player carried their team like Walker
You would think players occupying over 40-percent of their team’s offense would have been commonplace decades ago. Surely Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders and the numerous Heisman winning running backs of this era were just as important to their teams as Herschel Walker was to Georgia football. This era isn’t known for passing after all.
But it is true. Walker was a rare breed even in this era. Teams seldom relied on one running back with most teams running some variation of the option, that’s often forgotten by those who believe Bo Jackson to be the greater back between him and Walker.
Not to say Jackson wasn’t a great running back, but he had way more help than Walker in his four years at Auburn. Lionel James gained over 1,500 yards in two seasons as Jackson’s teammate. Tommie Agee rushed for 1,462 yards behind Jackson, while Brent Fullwood rushed for 1,312 yards in two seasons. Based on total yards gained by Auburn, Jackson only accounted for a quarter of their offense. Overall, Auburn as a team was great in 1983, but that was its only year with Jackson in which it won over nine games.
But what about other Heisman winning running backs? Two-time winner Archie Griffin for instance? Griffin didn’t even account for a third of Ohio State’s total yards over his four years. Griffin wasn’t even the Buckeye’s only 1,000-yard rusher in 1975, Pete Johnson joined him above the millennium mark and scored 25 touchdowns (to Griffin’s four) while doing it. Ohio State also had players like Cornelius Greene, Champ Henson and Bruce Elia to take attention away from Griffin.
Other great running backs of this era; Billy Sims, Earl Campbell, Mike Rozier, Charles White and Marcus Allen did not account for as much of their team’s offense throughout their careers as Walker. Walker’s future Dallas Cowboys teammate Tony Dorsett came close in his mid-1970’s career at Pittsburgh, but the Panthers only had one 10-win season with Dorsett.
Only one great running back accounted for more of his team’s total yards than Walker and that’s O.J. Simpson with 48.6-percent of USC’s total offensive yards. The Trojans were fantastic with O.J. Simpson, but Simpson was a junior college transfer and only played two seasons at USC.
Barry Sanders didn’t play in an option offense at Oklahoma State and he had a 2,700-yard Heisman season in his 1988 Heisman Trophy season. Surely he has an argument against Walker. Again, he does not. Sanders only had one great season in Stillwater, the rest was spent as a backup. And in that one great season, quarterback (and current Oklahoma State head coach) Mike Gundy passed for 2,163 yards. Sanders doesn’t have the longevity and he played alongside a great passing game.
Herschel’s the best ever
Longevity, a bulk of his team’s load, personal and team success, Herschel Walker had it all. There’s just no argument for anyone else. Herschel Walker is the best running back in college football history.
Not only that, but Walker is also one of the greatest athletes ever. Walker had an underrated pro football career, was an excellent track runner, an Olympic bobsledder, a fifth-degree blackbelt in tae kwon do and is undefeated in mixed martial arts. It’s no wonder why Walker could carry so much of Georgia’s offense, it’s just his nature.
As football has evolved to become more balanced, it’s unlikely any running back will ever come close to Walker’s greatness. Great teams just aren’t placing the bulk of their entire offensive load on one or two guys anymore. Defenses are too good and athletic these days for that to work so teams need reliable skill players at every position.
No team with championship aspirations is going to give one running back 35-plus carries every week. And the ones that do, likely aren’t getting the play-by-play production Georgia football had with Herschel Walker.
Herschel Walker is the greatest running back in college football history. Don’t expect that statement to ever change.