Reggie Bush and LenDale White. Montee Ball and James White. Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb. College football history is littered with great running back duos and it is no coincidence that the teams that have them are generally competing on the biggest stages.
As we look ahead to the 2023 college football season, there are plenty of impressive duos that will be hitting our screens. Here are the best of the bunch.
Honourable mentions
Before we get into the top five duos, it is worth mentioning some of the backfield duos that just missed the cut. Alabama’s pairing of Jase McClellan and five-star true freshman Justice Haynes feels like it could do some real damage in the SEC this year.
Texas also feel like a dark horse candidate for this list, despite the departure of Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson. They bring in Cedric Baxter, one of the most highly-touted recruits in the country with the dream combination of size and speed. He will pair up with Jonathon Brooks, who averaged an absurd 5.1 yards after contact on his 30 attempts in 2022.
5. UCLA Bruins
UCLA’s rushing attack was relentless last year, with their 239.8 rushing yards per game ranking second amongst all Power Five teams. Leading rusher Zach Charbonnet might have departed for the NFL, but Bruins fans should be confident that their backfield remains in good hands for 2023.
True sophomore TJ Harden looks set for a big season after showing promise as a freshman. He finished with 326 yards on his 44 carries, with his 7.4 yards per attempt leading the Pac-12. 13.6% of those carries went for 15+ yards. The Bruins also dipped into the transfer portal and added former Ball State back Carson Steele. Steele’s 1,528 rushing yards in 2022 rank second amongst returning backs and only Bijan Robinson topped his 96 forced missed tackles.
4. Ole Miss Rebels
Some of these duos make this list because both backs are equally potent. Others make the cut because one player is an absolute game-breaking talent. Ole Miss is the latter. Quinshon Judkins put together one of the best true freshman seasons we have seen in recent years, racking up 1,567 rushing yards on his way to First Team All-SEC honours and being voted the conference’s Freshman of the Year.
Judkins’ combination of size and speed makes him almost unstoppable. As a true freshman he led the SEC in rushing yards, forced missed tackles, explosive runs, and breakaway runs. This year the team should also be able to call upon a fully healthy Ulysses Bentley as his backup. Bentley missed most of last season with injuries, but during his time at SMU he was a force to be reckoned with. In 2021 he averaged an incredible 4.2 yards after contact, forcing 0.31 missed tackles per attempt. That figure puts him in the 94th percentile.
3. Penn State Nittany Lions
This is where we start to enter the truly elite tier of backfield duos. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen were both true freshmen in 2022, but that didn’t stop them lighting up opponents every single week. A former five-star and four-star recruit respectively, they held their own against the best that college football could offer.
They combined for 1,921 yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground. Allen averaged a very respectable 5.2 yards per carry. His 0.28 forced missed tackles per attempt puts him in the 87th percentile at the position. Singleton put up an eye-popping 6.8 yards per carry, a figure that ranked second in the Big Ten. His blend of power and speed (he reportedly runs a 4.39 at 224 lbs) has earned comparisons to former Wisconsin back Jonathan Taylor, and it is easy to see why.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes
Ohio State has deservedly earned a reputation as a running back factory over recent years and their 2023 backfield is testament to that fact. This is a unit that ranked seventh in the nation in rushing EPA per play last year and it is easy to see why. TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams give them the archetypal “thunder and lightning” pairing in their backfield.
Everyone already knows how good Henderson is, even if his 2022 season was hampered by a lingering foot injury. As a true freshman in 2021 he averaged 6.8 yards per carry and led the team with 15 rushing touchdowns. He ranked in the 80th percentile or above in forced missed tackle rate, explosive run rate, and breakaway run rate. Don’t sleep on Williams though. If anything, he was the better back last season. He is a true bruiser, with relentless power and churn after contact that saw him force an astonishing 0.37 missed tackles per attempt.
1. Michigan Wolverines
It was always going to be tough to surpass the Ohio State and Penn State backfields, but Michigan’s dynamic duo really is the best running back tandem in college football. In Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards they have two players who are legitimate stars in their own right and who would no doubt put up even more insane numbers were they not sharing a backfield.
The numbers really do speak for themselves. Corum finished the 2022 season with 1,461 rushing yards on 248 attempts, finding the end zone on 18 occasions. His 73 forced missed tackles ranks sixth amongst all returning FBS backs and he was voted a Unanimous All-American. Edwards is a star in his own right too. He was the only Power Five running back to average over seven yards per attempt in 2022. He is also a legitimate weapon as a pass catcher, with his 1.49 yards per route run ranking in the 86th percentile.
