Matt Forte and Kevin Smith: The Next Great Running Backs, Or Troy Davis and Byron Hanspard?

Lost in the ridiculousness of this college football season was the fact that for just the second time ever, two players rushed for more than 2,000 yards. Tulane’s Matt Forte was the first to cross the threshold, carving up Rice for 195 yards on November 17 en route to a final total of 2,127 in 12 games. A footnote to that story was the performance of UCF’s Kevin Smith, who went for 177 yards against SMU to raise his season total to 1,945. In the two games since, Smith has rushed for 503 yards for a total of 2,448 yards in 13 games. The following chart lists the thirteen 2,000-yard seasons in Division 1-A history in chronological order:

Player	School	Year	Yards	Games
Marcus Allen	USC	1981	2,342	11
Mike Rozier	Nebraska	1983	2,148	12
Barry Sanders	Oklahoma State	1988	2,628	11
Rashaan Salaam	Colorado	1994	2,055	11
Troy Davis	Iowa State	1995	2,010	11
Troy Davis	Iowa State	1996	2,185	11
Byron Hanspard	Texas Tech	1996	2,084	11
Ricky Williams	Texas	1998	2,124	11
LaDainian Tomlinson	TCU	2000	2,158	11
Larry Johnson	Penn State	2002	2,087	13
J.J. Arrington	California	2004	2,018	12
Kevin Smith*	UCF	2007	2,448	13
Matt Forte	Tulane	2007	2,127	12

Smith’s 2,448 yards is the second highest single-season total of all-time, trailing only the 2,628 of Barry Sanders’ extraordinary 1988 campaign. Sanders, however, holds a couple of clear advantages: his record-setting total came in just eleven games, compared with thirteen for Smith, and the mark does not include his performance in the 1988 Holiday Bowl. In that game, Sanders padded his stats with another 222 yards, bringing his final total to 2,850 yards in twelve games. Smith is good, sure, but “402 yards against the third best team in the SEC West” good? Probably not (his career high is 320). Still, his performance in 2007 has clearly been about six notches above exceptional and he deserves recognition for that.

With two great seasons like this, the natural inclination is to eagerly anticipate the arrival of these two young men at the professional level (Forte is a senior, Smith a junior). Before we get overly excited about their bright futures, however, we should consider the last time two players rushed for 2,000 yards in the same season: 1996, when Iowa State’s Troy Davis and Texas Tech’s Byron Hanspard both reached that magical number. Davis’ total in particular was historic in that it marked the first time ever that a player had recorded multiple 2,000-yard seasons (he had 2,010 as a sophomore the year before).

Davis and Hanspard were exceptional college backs, but neither experienced much success at the professional level after leaving school a year early for the siren’s song of the NFL. Fresh off those back-to-back 2,000-yard seasons, Davis ran for just 446 yards and one touchdown in three seasons after being drafted in the third round by the New Orleans Saints, with 271 of those coming in his rookie year. He did go on to have a decent career in the Canadian Football League, with five 1,000-yard seasons to date.

Hanspard also enjoyed a disappointing professional career, with 718 yards in two seasons as a second-round pick of the Atlanta Falcon. The next-to-last game he played was his best as a pro: 26 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals in 1999.

Not surprisingly, the career rushing totals of Davis and Hanspard are two of the lowest for any members of the 2,000 Yard Club. The only player who has carried the ball for less as a professional is J.J. Arrington, who had 2,018 yards for California but only 438 in three seasons for Arizona Cardinals. On the flip side, there are three 10,000-yard rushers on the list: Sanders, Marcus Allen and LaDainian Tomlinson. Tomlinson sits in third right now, with 10,225, but he has seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and is one year removed from a career-high 1,815 yards in 2006.

Player	Career Yards	Single-Season High
Marcus Allen	12,243	1,759 (1984)
Mike Rozier	4,462	1,002 (1988)
Barry Sanders	15,269	2,053 (1997)
Rashaan Salaam	1,682	1,074 (1995)
Troy Davis	446	271 (1997)
Byron Hanspard	718	383 (1999)
Ricky Williams	7,112	1,853 (2002)
LaDainian Tomlinson	10,048*	1,815 (2006)
Larry Johnson	4,764*	1,789 (2006)
J.J. Arrington	438*	370 (2005)

*Active

The next few weeks should be interesting for Forte and Smith as the former prepares for life after college (he is currently projected as a third or fourth round draft pick) and the latter considers the possibility of leaving early for the NFL. (It should be noted that UCF’s offense featured five seniors this season, including the quarterback, fullback, and two offensive linemen.) Personally, I think it would be great if he broke 2,600 yards for the season in the bowl game against Mississippi State, then came back next year and tried for 3,000 (!), but my opinion is skewed by the fact that I’m all about the history of the game and not about the millions of dollars that await in the pros.

Source for player list:
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/10473216