Trying to figure out who the best tailback in the country is seems like an easy task, right? After all, new Heisman favorite Saquon Barkley returned a kickoff for a touchdown and threw for another in a rout of Indiana. Plus there is San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny, LSU’s Derrius Guice and nearly a dozen others who may have their own claim to the crown after Saturday wraps up too.
None, however, are holding a candle to Stanford’s Bryce Love when it comes to stats.
The Cardinal’s star running back set a new school record on Saturday by rushing for 301 yards on the ground in a rather effortless 34-24 win over Arizona State on the Farm. That mark included three touchdown runs of over 40 yards to boot. The Sun Devils aren’t exactly a stout defensive team but they looked like an FCS squad trying to tackle Love at times.
The crazy thing though? September is not even over and yet Love has crossed the 1,000 yard mark on the season and leads FBS in rushing by a huge margin. In fact, Pac-12 Networks noted that his 1,088 rushing yards -- on just 98 carries -- is the most through five games in the last 20 (!!) seasons.
Christian McCaffrey who?
Barry Sanders's first 5 games in 1988:
— Zach Barnett (@zach_barnett) September 30, 2017
130 carries for 1,002 yards
Bryce Love's first 5 games this season:
98 carries for 1,088 yards https://t.co/MAXyTObLjq
Heck, Love’s worst game this year was in that blowout loss to USC and he still managed 160 yards on 17 carries (that’s 9.4 per touch for the non-math majors). There are still seven regular season games left on Stanford’s schedule so it’ safe to say that topping the 2,000 yard barrier remains a possibility for the tailback by the time December rolls around.
Yes the Cardinal already have two losses on their record but that certainly won’t prevent Love from running his way to New York City as a Heisman finalist if he’s able to keep things up after a remarkable start to 2017 in the backfield.