Washington releases Bryce Love, pretty much extinguishing any faint hopes of him truly returning from the major knee injury he suffered his final season at Stanford. Unlikely that he shows up on an NFL roster again.

At Stanford, Love for a while looked like a similar player to Christian McCaffrey. The measurables weren’t as good and without the elite pass-catching skills, but Love piled up some huge rushing numbers, running for 2,118 yards in the 2017 season. If we wind the clock back to December that year, there's Love at the Heisman Trophy presentation, posing for photos between Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson

Washington selected him in the fourth round, hoping he might be able to put things together, but in two years there he never actually got on the field in a regular-season game. It released him today.

Love joins the long list of runners who were successful at the college level but weren’t big factors in the pros. It got me looking into previous players who ran for over 2,000 yards in college.

At the sports-reference.com website, they’ve got a list of 35 players who ran for over 2,000 yards at the major college level. About half of those guys went on to run for over 1,000 yards in at least one NFL season (and those players are tagged with black dots). Only two have gone over 2,000 for both college and NFL teams (Barry Sanders and Derrick Henry).

PLAYERS RUNNING FOR 2,000 YARDS IN COLLEGE
YearPlayerYardsCollegeBest Pro SeasonTeam
1988• Barry Sanders2,628Oklahoma State335-2053-11Det.
2014• Melvin Gordon2,587Wisconsin284-1105-8LAC
2007Kevin Smith2,567Central Florida238-976-8Det.
1981• Marcus Allen2,427Southern Cal380-1759-11Oak.
2017Rashaad Penny2,248San Diego State85-419-2Sea.
2015• Derrick Henry2,219Alabama378-2027-17Ten.
2018• Jonathan Taylor2,194Wisconsin232-1169-11Ind.
1996Troy Davis2,185Iowa State75-271-0N.O.
2013Andre Williams2,177Boston College217-721-7NYG
2000• LaDainian Tomlinson2,158Texas Christian348-1815-28S.D.
1976• Tony Dorsett2,150Pitt342-1646-4Dall.
1983• Mike Rozier2,148Nebraska251-1002-10Hou.
2016Donnel Pumphrey2,133San Diego State0-0-0Phil.
2007• Matt Forte2,127Tulane289-1339-9Chi.
1998• Ricky Williams2,124Texas383-1853-16Mia.
2017Bryce Love2,118Stanford0-0-0Was.
1996Ron Dayne2,109Wisconsin194-773-6Hou.
2019Chuba Hubbard2,094Oklahoma State??
2002• Larry Johnson2,087Penn State416-1789-17K.C.
2008Donald Brown2,083Connecticut134-645-5Ind.
1985• Lorenzo White2,066Michigan State265-1226-7Hou.
2000Damien Anderson2,063Northwestern18-68-0Ariz.
1994• Rashaan Salaam2,055Colorado296-1074-10Chi.
1979• Charles White2,050Southern Cal324-1374-11LAR
2014Tevin Coleman2,036Indiana167-800-4Atl.
1999Ron Dayne2,034Wisconsin228-770-5NYG
2016D'Onta Foreman2,028Texas78-327-2Hou.
2015• Christian McCaffrey2,019Stanford287-1387-15Car.
2004J.J. Arrington2,018California112-370-2Ariz.
2019Malcolm Perry2,017Navy3-5-0Mia.
2007• Ray Rice2,012Rutgers291-1364-12Balt.
1995Troy Davis2,010Iowa State55-143-1N.O.
2019• Jonathan Taylor2,003Wisconsin232-1169-11Ind.
2019J.K. Dobbins2,003Ohio State134-805-9Balt.
1996Byron Hanspard2,000Texas Tech136-383-1Atl.

—Ian Allan