Question

Seattle’s first-round pick, Rashaad Penny, ran for 2,248 yards last year for San Diego State, and he did it the season after that school had another 2,000-yard rusher – Donnel Pumphrey (drafted last year by Philadelphia). That’s never happened before at the top level of college football. What is the only other school in this century that’s had two 2,000-yard rushers (separated by a year)?

Answer

Stanford, with Bryce Love last year and Christian McCaffrey in 2015. Dipping way back to 1979 and 1981, Southern Cal had two 2,000-yard rushers (Charles White and Marcus Allen). With a larger gap of years between them, two other schools have had multiple 2,000-yard rushers: Texas (Ricky Williams and D’Onta Foreman) and Wisconsin (Ron Dayne, Melvin Gordon). Dayne and Troy Davis (Iowa State) are the only college players who’ve gone over 2,000 twice. Stats come from sports-reference.com.