Top 5 Running Back Performances of Week 9 College Football: Ollie Gordon II, Frank Gore Jr., more

Week 8 of the college football season is over. It was a fun day of football and included some good performances from running backs, with 11 backs rushing for 150 or more yards. That includes five backs with 200-plus rushing yards, all of whom are mentioned below.

The other backs to finish Week 9 with at least 150 rushing yards were Georgia Tech's Dontae Smith, Memphis' Blake Watson, Louisville's Jawhar Jordan, Miami (OH)'s Rashad Amos, Ohio State's TreVeyon Henderson, Cal's Jaydn Ott, and North Carolina's Omarion Hampton. It was a really good week for the running back position, featuring some of the best rushing performances of the entire 2023 season.

Below are the top five running back performances from Week 9 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. Jordan Nubin - Minnesota

It’s not often that a running back makes it onto this list after a teammate made it on earlier in the season. But with Darius Taylor, who had 193 yards against Eastern Michigan and 198 yards against Northwestern, injured this week, the Golden Gophers turned to Jordan Nubin as the lead back.

Coming into this game, Nubin had exactly six carries on the season, all coming against Michigan earlier in October. On Saturday against Michigan State, Nubin carried the ball 40 times. He finished the game with 204 yards and two touchdowns.

It was a pretty wild performance considering Nubin’s previous career high in rushing yards was 25 and that he’s never had a rushing score before. It's unclear if we should expect to see Nubin with this kind of workload again, but Minnesota has to feel good about the fact that seemingly anyone can step in and have a huge showing for this Gophers team.

4. Marcus Carroll - Georgia State

Georgia State’s Marcus Carroll now sits second in the FBS in rushing yards, behind only Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II. He’s run for 1,060 yards and 12 touchdowns this season for the Panthers and sits third in the NCAA in rushing touchdowns.

This week, Carroll carried the ball 28 times for 208 yards in the team’s 44-27 loss to Georgia Southern. He found the end zone twice in the defeat.

While this was Carroll’s first 200-yard game of the season, it was his fourth game with at least 150 rushing yards. His previous best this year was back in August against Rhode Island when he ran for 184 yards and three touchdowns.

3. Frank Gore Jr. - Southern Miss

Frank Gore Jr., the son of the NFL legend, had himself a huge game on Saturday in a loss to Appalachian State. Gore carried the ball 24 times, finishing with 247 yards and two touchdowns.

This season has been a bit disappointing for Gore. After averaging 6.1 yards per carry last season for the Golden Eagles, he’s down to 4.9 yards per carry this season. He’s been held under 40 rushing yards four times already.

This was also his third game with over 100 rushing yards. It’s been a bit of a feast or famine thing for Gore this season, but the fact that three of those bad games were in the team’s first three games seems to suggest that things have largely turned around for Gore.

2. Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams - UMass

UMass running back Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams went over 100 yards on the ground for the fourth time this season in Saturday’s win over Army. He went a good way over that 100-yard mark, as he carried the ball 34 times for 234 yards and three touchdowns in the 21-14 win.

Lynch-Adams was just a true workhorse in this one. The Minutemen had 37 carries in the game; he had 34 of those. He finished with 240 scrimmage yards; second on the team was Anthony Simpson with 36, all from receptions.

The former Rutgers player now sits fourth in the FBS in rushing yards and 10th in yards from scrimmage. Before this year, he’d never run for more than 297 yards in a season. In his fifth year, he’s already at 926 rushing yards.

1. Ollie Gordon II - Oklahoma State

The ascension of Ollie Gordon II to the role of best running back in college football continued this week as he rushed for 271 yards in a 45-13 win over Cincinnati. He found the end zone twice in the victory. Gordon also caught four passes for 21 yards.

This marks back-to-back games with over 200 rushing yards for Gordon, who had 282 and four touchdowns against West Virginia the week before. He’s at four straight games with over 100 rushing yards.

Gordon has now moved to the No. 1 spot in the country in rushing yards at 1,087, putting him 27 yards ahead of Marcus Carroll. His 7.7 rushing yards per attempt rank fourth in the FBS, while he sits in a tie for ninth in rushing touchdowns. Just a monster five-game span here for Gordon as he continues to dominate Big 12 defenses.

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