College Fantasy Football: The recruitment of the top five RBs
Many of the top-scoring running backs in the college fantasy football game had interesting recruitments and many of them flipped schools. Here is a look at the top scorers among running backs and how they are faring this season.
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1. Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State
Rated as a four-star athlete, Hubbard was a prolific running back out of Canada who rushed for 6,880 yards and 82 touchdowns in three high school seasons. He picked Oklahoma State over Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma and many others. Hubbard leads all Power Five running backs in attempts (216), rushing yards (1,381) and rushing touchdowns (16). Although he has 372 more rushing yards than Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor, there is very little Heisman Trophy talk around Hubbard with a month to go in the regular season.
2. Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
An early Rutgers commit, Taylor flipped to Wisconsin after his official visit where he watched the Badgers play Ohio State midway through his senior season. Taylor was a four-star prospect but only ranked No. 208 in the country and No. 13 at the running back position although it was a loaded group with Najee Harris, Cam Akers, D’Andre Swift, J.K. Dobbins and Eno Benjamin leading the group. In his Wisconsin career, Taylor has 783 carries for 5,180 yards and 44 touchdowns.
3. Cam Akers, Florida State
An early Alabama commitment, Akers backed off that pledge and picked Florida State over LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Ohio State. He was ranked as the third-best player nationally in the 2017 class behind Najee Harris and DT Marvin Wilson, who also ended up with the Seminoles. Although Florida State has not returned as a national power, Akers rushed for more than 1,000 yards in his freshman year, slid to only 706 last year but he’s third among running backs in the fantasy game with 917 yards and 12 touchdowns so far this season and he has three receiving TDs as well.
4. J.K. Dobbins, Ohio State
Despite not visiting Ohio State, Dobbins decided to commit to the Buckeyes only a couple short weeks after being offered. Texas and Oklahoma were considered the front-runners in Dobbins’ recruitment before he picked the Buckeyes.
Things have worked out really well in Columbus for Dobbins, who was on the fringe of getting his fifth star and was the fourth-best RB in the 2017 class behind Harris, Akers and Swift. On only 154 carries, Dobbins has 1,110 yards and nine rushing scores and two receiving TDs for arguably the nation’s best team.
5. AJ Dillon, Boston College
Dillon flipped his commitment from Michigan to Boston College a few weeks after taking an official visit to Chestnut Hill. Even after Dillon picked the Wolverines, the Boston College staff never backed off recruiting him and finally got him to change his pledge.
A workhorse in BC’s backfield for the last few years, Dillon has 1,044 yards and 10 TDs on 197 carries this season. Over three seasons, the former four-star who was outside the Rivals250 has rushed for 3,741 yards and 34 TDs on 724 carries.