The growing list of underclassmen running backs declaring for the NFL Draft added another name Monday as Boise State’s Jeremy McNichols has announced he will leave school after Tuesday’s Motel 6 Cactus Bowl.
“I feel like I’ve done everything I wanted to do at Boise State,” McNichols told the Idaho Statesman at the Cactus Bowl media day in Phoenix. “I won a championship freshman year, won a couple bowl games, met a lot of great people in Boise, got great coaches behind me.
McNichols has rushed 295 times for 1,663 yards with 23 touchdowns and caught 32 times for 450 yards and four scores on the season. A 162-yard rushing effort in Tuesday’s game against Baylor will hand him Boise State’s single-season rushing record -- topping the mark set by Jay Ajayi, who, ironically, serves as McNichols’ NFL doppleganger.
McNichols projects as a mid-round pick in this spring’s draft. Ajayi was taken by the Miami Dolphins in the fifth round of the 2015 draft and has since accumulated more than 1,200 yards.
“Playing running back, the lifespan is really short,” McNichols said. “Talking to Jay was huge. He mentored me through the whole process.”