Top 5 Running Back Performances of Week 6 College Football: Antario Brown, Kimani Vidal, more

October 9, 2023

Justin's NCAA college football top running backs from Week 6 of the 2023 season. Top RB performers include Antario Brown and Kimani Vidal.

Week 6 of the college football season is over. It was a fun day of football and included some good performances from running backs, with nine backs rushing for 150 or more yards. Some of those players are mentioned below, but a quick shoutout to the ones who aren't: Ismail Mahdi (Texas State), Tahj Brooks (Texas Tech), Ashton Jeanty (Boise State), Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams (UMass), Devin Neal (Kansas), and Emani Bailey (TCU).

Special shoutout to Jeanty, who was fifth on last week's list of best performances. He sits eighth in the country in rushing yards right now and has three games with over 100 rushing yards plus 12 total touchdowns for the Broncos.

Below are the top five running back performances from Week 6 of the college football season. These are judged through a combination of statistics, fantasy scoring, and game context, with consideration also given based on the team's offensive systems. Let's take a look at this week's top performances.

5. Cody Schrader - Missouri

One of the biggest surprises in college football this season has been Missouri. The Tigers haven't lost fewer than five games since 2014, but they currently sit at 5-1 following their first loss of the year, a 49-39 defeat to a really good LSU team.

Running back Cody Schrader, who began his career at Truman State and transferred to Mizzou last year, has been a huge part of the team's success this season. He rushed for 114 yards on Saturday against LSU, marking his third 100-yard game of the 2023 season. He also ran for three touchdowns, a career-high. It was just the second multi-touchdown game that Schrader has had at the FBS level, with the other being a two-touchdown game against New Mexico State last year.

Mizzou's been a fun team so far. Schrader is averaging 6.1 yards per carry and deserves to be discussed among the top running backs in college football this season. If he keeps this up during the heart of the SEC schedule, he will be.

4. Jermaine Brown Jr. - UAB

UAB's Jermaine Brown entered this weekend's game against South Florida with 154 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the season. He hadn't rushed for more than 45 yards in a single game and he trailed Isaiah Jacobs for the team lead in rushing yards.

But Jacobs didn't play this week, with the former Maryland running back reportedly being a healthy scratch. That opened the lead role up for Brown, who responded with his best game of the season.

Brown carried the ball 18 times for 116 yards in the team's win over USF. But more importantly, he found the end zone four times, a new career high. His previous high came back in 2021 when he had three scores against UTEP. It was a strong showing from Brown, who's been with the Blazers since 2019.

3. Trey Benson - Florida State

Florida State remained undefeated with Saturday's 39-17 win over Virginia Tech, but this week it wasn't quarterback Jordan Travis who was the star for the Seminoles. It was running back Trey Benson.

Benson, who started his career at Oregon but played sparingly, has really made an impact at FSU. Last year, he had 154 carries for 990 yards and nine touchdowns. This season, he got off to a bit of an uneven start, but he had a breakout performance this week.

Despite touching the ball just 14 times, Benson had 215 scrimmage yards, with 200 of those on the ground. He ran for a pair of touchdowns. It was his second multi-touchdown game of the year following his three-touchdown showing against Southern Miss last month.

One thing I like about his game is that he's deceptively fast. On the 85-yard touchdown above, he doesn't really look like he's going to run for an 85-yard touchdown. But, well...he does!

2. Kimani Vidal - Troy

Troy's Kimani Vidal currently leads the FBS in rushing yards and it isn't particularly close. He's rushed for 835 yards, over 100 more than Jonathon Brooks, who is second with 726 yards. And it's not even like Troy's just running the ball 100 times per game -- their 35.6 rushing attempts per game rank just 61st in FBS this season.

This week, Vidal had his second game with 200-plus yards this season. After rushing for 248 yards on 25 carries back in Week 1 against Stephen F. Austin, he rushed for 245 yards on 28 carries against Arkansas State this week. He found the end zone three times.

Vidal now has six rushing touchdowns this season, with all of them coming over the past three games. He also caught a touchdown pass against Georgia State last week.

1. Antario Brown - Northern Illinois

Northern Illinois running back Antario Brown got off to a relatively slow start this season. In the first four games, his highest rushing total was 61 yards against Southern Illinois, an FCS team. His best showing against an FBS opponent was his 54 yards against Tulsa.

Then came last week's Toledo game, where Brown ran 16 times for 152 yards. It was the fourth 100-yard game in his career and put him just eight yards shy of his previous career high.

He smashed that mark this week against Akron. Brown had 13 carries in the 55-14 win for the Huskies, gaining 280 yards and scoring four touchdowns. Those touchdown runs were all breakaways, as he ran for scores of 66, 58, 46, and 50 yards.

That includes the run above, which was just magical. I mean, like...how? He should have been tackled just a few yards past the line of scrimmage. He should have been tackled a little later out around the 30. Somehow, he stayed on his feet and found his way into the end zone.

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