Top 5 running backs in college football for 2019

After talking about the best quarterbacks in the nation, we now move on to the guys carrying the rock. Especially with running backs, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers and not evaluate them as individual talents.

I tried to rank them without taking their offensive line or system into account. Once again, we are talking about college players, not necessarily draft prospects, and the main criteria I judged them on was the tape they have put out to this point, including the potential I see for them in 2019.

#1 D’Andre Swift, Georgia

After averaging 7.9 yards per touch on right around 100 chances as a freshman, Swift was asked to replace the production of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. Because the coaches split carries pretty much 50-50 between him and Elijah Holyfield, Swift only had 163 carries in 2018, but made most of them, averaging 6.4 yards and scoring ten touchdowns and 32 runs of those runs went for 10+ yards, who the former five-star recruit converted 31.0 percent of his carries into first downs or touchdowns.

Additionally, he was one of the most productive pass-catchers out of the backfield with 32 catches for just short of 300 yards and another three trips to the end-zone, as the Bulldog coaches actually split him out in the slot to run routes. Swift can switch up his footwork on the fly, he has very loose hips to make that sharp cut upfield and that special elusiveness to make guys miss with the ball in his hands.

At 5’9”, 215 pounds Swift might not the biggest guy, but he can convert speed into power when he has the opportunity blast through somebody’s chest and he runs through arm-tackles time and time again.