A pair of tweets tells football fans everything there is to know about how dominant the Wisconsin Badgers are at running the ball.
As pointed out by Dave Heller, the Badgers have four of the top 10 rushers in the past decade in the B1G with Jonathan Taylor, Melvin Gordon, Montee Ball and James White. Taylor, who was drafted by the Colts in 2020, leads the entire conference with 6,174 yards. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Big Ten rushing yards in the 2010s:
1. Jonathan Taylor 6174, 6.7, 50 TD
2. Justin Jackson 5440, 4.8, 41
3. Melvin Gordon 4915, 7.8, 45
4. Montee Ball 4749, 5.7, 73
5. Ameer Abdullah 4588, 5.6, 39#Badgers— Dave Heller (@dave_heller) June 30, 2020
6. JK Dobbins 4459, 6.2, 38
7. Denard Robinson 4144, 6.3, 37
8. Rodney Smith, 4125, 4.7, 29
9. James White 4015, 6.2, 45
10. Ezekiel Elliott 3961, 6.7, 43(11. Saquon Barkley, 3843, 5.7, 43)#Badgers
— Dave Heller (@dave_heller) June 30, 2020
It’s truly insane just how good Wisconsin has been at running the ball. It’s borderline unbelievable. Jonathan Taylor only needed three years to lead the conference in rushing for a decade.
Stop and think about how crazy that is. The dude racked up 6,174 yards in just three seasons. If that’s not the definition of impressive, then I don’t know what is.
Melvin Gordon might also be the most physically gifted runner I’ve ever seen. He looked like a video game character on the field.
He is a gigantic human, and defenses had no idea what to do with him. It’s too bad he was never paired with a truly elite quarterback.
The stats could have been even bigger.
Even a guy like James White who didn’t dominate touches managed to hit the 4,000 mark. He’s since become a hell of a player for the Patriots.
The question now is who will be the next great Wisconsin running back. I don’t know who will fill Taylor’s shoes, but I know we always reload.