NCAA Division I FBS rushing leaders explained

The NCAA Division I FBS rushing leaders are career, single-season, and single-game leaders in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.^[1] These lists are dominated by more recent players for several reasons:

• Since 1955, seasons have increased from 10 games to 11 and then 12 games in length.
• The NCAA didn't allow freshmen to play varsity football until 1972 (with the exception of the World War II years), allowing players to have four-year careers.
• Bowl games only began counting toward single-season and career statistics in 2002.^[2] This affects many players from before that time period, most notably Ron Dayne.
• In recent decades, starting with the Southeastern Conference in 1992, FBS conferences have introduced their own championship games, which have always counted fully toward single-season and career statistics.
• The NCAA ruled that the 2020 season, heavily disrupted by COVID-19, would not count against the athletic eligibility of any football player. This gave every player active in that season the opportunity for five years of eligibility instead of the normal four.

Only seasons in which a team was considered to be a part of the Football Bowl Subdivision are included in these lists. All records are current as of the end of the 2023 season.

Rushing Yards

The NCAA recognizes San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey as the career leading in rushing yards.^[1] Pumphrey set the record in the fourth quarter of his final game, the 2016 Las Vegas Bowl, ending with 6,405 total yards.^[3] However, this is controversial as Wisconsin's Ron Dayne actually rushed for 7,125 in his career, but all four of Dayne's seasons came before the NCAA recognized bowl statistics (doing so only in 2002) as part of season and career totals. Dayne officially is listed as having eight yards less than of Pumphrey despite only one player having their bowl statistics included. This has been seen as controversial by many fans and writers, who feel that the NCAA should count all pre-2002 bowl statistics as official if post-2002 ones are.^{[4] [5]} Dayne himself congratulated Pumphrey but agreed that counting Pumphrey's bowl stats but not his own was unfair.^[6]

Additionally, Pittsburgh's Tony Dorsett would be ahead of Pumphrey if his bowl statistics were counted.

The single-season record holder is Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders, whose record of 2,628 does not include his bowl statistics. If they were included, it would bring his total to 2,850.

The single-game rushing record belongs to Oklahoma's Samaje Perine, whose 427 yards in a 2014 game against Kansas broke a record set just the week before by Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon. Prior to Perine and Gordon, the only player to rush for 400 yards in a game was LaDainian Tomlinson.

The only player on any of the three lists who is not a running back is Navy's Malcolm Perry, who rushed for 2,017 yards in the 2019 season. The career leader in rushing yards by a quarterback is Navy's Keenan Reynolds, who rushed for 4,559 yards in his career. The single-game leader is Arizona's Khalil Tate, who rushed for 327 yards in a 2017 game against Colorado.

Career

	Player	Y	Years	School
1	Donnel Pumphrey <	-- Do not move Dayne to #1 on account of his bowl game statistics. This list matches the official NCAA leaderboards, and the context is discussed above. -->	6,405	style=		align=left style=
2	Ron Dayne <	-- Do not move Dayne to #1 on account of his bowl game statistics. This list matches the official NCAA leaderboards, and the context is discussed above. -->	6,397	style=		align=left style=
3	Ricky Williams	6,279	style=		align=left style=
4	Jonathan Taylor	6,174	style=		align=left style=
5	Tony Dorsett	6,082	style=		align=left style=
6	DeAngelo Williams	6,026	style=		align=left style=
7	Royce Freeman	5,621	style=		align=left style=
8	Charles White	5,598	style=		align=left style=
9	Travis Prentice	5,596	style=		align=left style=
10	Cedric Benson	5,540	style=		align=left style=
11	Justin Jackson	5,440	style=		align=left style=
12	Myles Gaskin	5,323	style=		align=left style=
13	Damion Fletcher	5,302	style=		align=left style=
14	LaDainian Tomlinson	5,263	style=		align=left style=
15	Herschel Walker	5,259	style=		align=left style=
16	Archie Griffin	5,177	style=		align=left style=
17	Avon Cobourne	5,164	style=		align=left style=
	Garrett Wolfe	5,164	style=		align=left style=
19	Montee Ball	5,140	style=		align=left style=
20	LaMichael James	5,082	style=		align=left style=
21	Mike Hart	5,040	style=		align=left style=
22	Darren Lewis	5,012	style=		align=left style=
23	Darren Sproles	4,979	style=		align=left style=
24	DonTrell Moore	4,973	style=		align=left style=
25	Anthony Thompson	4,965	style=		align=left style=
26	George Rogers	4,958	style=		align=left style=
27	Travis Etienne	4,952	style=		align=left style=
28	Trevor Cobb	4,948	style=		align=left style=
29	Kareem Hunt	4,945	style=		align=left style=
30	Michael Turner	4,941	style=		align=left style=

Single Season

	Player	Y	Year	School
1	Barry Sanders	2,628	style=		align=left style=
2	Melvin Gordon	2,587	style=		align=left style=
3	Kevin Smith	2,567	style=		align=left style=
4	Marcus Allen	2,342	style=		align=left style=
5	Rashaad Penny	2,248	style=		align=left style=
6	Derrick Henry	2,219	style=		align=left style=
7	Jonathan Taylor	2,194	style=		align=left style=
8	Troy Davis	2,185	style=		align=left style=
9	Andre Williams	2,177	style=		align=left style=
10	LaDainian Tomlinson	2,158	style=		align=left style=
11	Mike Rozier	2,148	style=		align=left style=
12	Donnel Pumphrey	2,133	style=		align=left style=
13	Matt Forte	2,127	style=		align=left style=
14	Ricky Williams	2,124	style=		align=left style=
15	Bryce Love	2,118	style=		align=left style=
16	Chuba Hubbard	2,094	style=		align=left style=
17	Larry Johnson	2,087	style=		align=left style=
18	Byron Hanspard	2,084	style=		align=left style=
19	Donald Brown	2,083	style=		align=left style=
20	Rashaan Salaam	2,055	style=		align=left style=
21	Tevin Coleman	2,036	style=		align=left style=
22	D'Onta Foreman	2,028	style=		align=left style=
23	Christian McCaffrey	2,019	style=		align=left style=
24	J. J. Arrington	2,018	style=		align=left style=
25	Malcolm Perry	2,017	style=		align=left style=
26	Ray Rice	2,012	style=		align=left style=
27	Troy Davis	2,010	style=		align=left style=
28	J. K. Dobbins	2,003	style=		align=left style=
29	Jonathan Taylor	2,003	style=		align=left style=
30	Darren Sproles	1,986	style=		align=left style=

Single Game

	Player	Y	Date	School
1	Samaje Perine	427	style=		align=left style=
2	Jaret Patterson	409	style=		align=left style=
3	Melvin Gordon	408	style=		align=left style=
4	LaDainian Tomlinson	406	style=		align=left style=
5	Tony Sands	396	style=		align=left style=
6	Marshall Faulk	386	style=		align=left style=
7	Troy Davis	378	style=		align=left style=
8	Anthony Thompson	377	style=		align=left style=
	Robbie Mixon	377	style=		align=left style=
10	Travis Prentice	376	style=		align=left style=
11	Eugene Baker	373	style=		align=left style=
12	Ka'Deem Carey	366	style=		align=left style=
13	Rueben Mayes	357	style=		align=left style=
	Mike Pringle	357	style=		align=left style=
15	Eddie Lee Ivery	356	style=		align=left style=
	Brian Pruitt	356	style=		align=left style=
17	Montel Harris	355	style=		align=left style=
18	Garrett Wolfe	353	style=		align=left style=
19	Scott Harley	351	style=		align=left style=
20	Eric Allen	350	style=		align=left style=
	Ricky Williams	350	style=		align=left style=
22	Paul Palmer	349	style=		align=left style=
	Matt Forte	349	style=		align=left style=
24	Shun White	348	style=		align=left style=
25	Ron Johnson	347	style=		align=left style=
	Ricky Bell	347	style=		align=left style=
27	Tavon Austin	345	style=		align=left style=
	Leon Allen	345	style=		align=left style=
29	Tony Jeffery	343	style=		align=left style=
30	D'Onta Foreman	341	style=		align=left style=

Rushing touchdowns

The career leader in rushing touchdowns is Navy's Keenan Reynolds, whose 88 career touchdowns passed a record previous held by Montee Ball. The single-season record was set by Barry Sanders in 1988, and Howard Griffith and Jaret Patterson share the single-game record with 8.

There are several quarterbacks on the lists, which are shown shaded in light blue.

Career

	Player	TDs	Years	School
1	Keenan Reynolds	88	style=		align=left style=
2	Montee Ball	77	style=		align=left style=
3	Travis Prentice	73	style=		align=left style=
4	Ricky Williams	72	style=		align=left style=
	Kenneth Dixon	72	style=		align=left style=
6	Travis Etienne	70	style=		align=left style=
7	Devin Singletary	66	style=		align=left style=
8	Anthony Thompson	64	style=		align=left style=
	Cedric Benson	62	style=		align=left style=
10	Ron Dayne	63	style=		align=left style=
11	Donnel Pumphrey	62	style=		align=left style=
12	Royce Freeman	60	style=		align=left style=
13	Eric Crouch	59	style=		align=left style=
	Colin Kaepernick	59	style=		align=left style=
15	Ian Johnson	58	style=		align=left style=
	Blake Corum	58	style=		align=left style=
17	Marshall Faulk	57	style=		align=left style=
	Tim Tebow	57	style=		align=left style=
	Myles Gaskin	57	style=		align=left style=
20	Steve Owens	56	style=		align=left style=
	Ken Simonton	56	style=		align=left style=
	Collin Klein	56	style=		align=left style=
23	Tony Dorsett	55	style=		align=left style=
	Chester Taylor	55	style=		align=left style=
	DeAngelo Williams	55	style=		align=left style=
26	LaDainian Tomlinson	54	style=		align=left style=
27	Dwone Hicks	53	style=		align=left style=
	LaMichael James	53	style=		align=left style=
	Bernard Pierce	53	style=		align=left style=
	Mohamed Ibrahim	53	style=		align=left style=

Single Season

	Player	TDs	Year	School
1	Barry Sanders	37	style=		align=left style=
2	Montee Ball	33	style=		align=left style=
3	Devin Singletary	32	style=		align=left style=
4	Kapri Bibbs	31	style=		align=left style=
	Keenan Reynolds	31	style=		align=left style=
6	Mike Rozier	29	style=		align=left style=
	Kevin Smith	29	style=		align=left style=
	Melvin Gordon	29	style=		align=left style=
9	Terry Metcalf	28	style=		align=left style=
	Willis McGahee	28	style=		align=left style=
	Toby Gerhart	28	style=		align=left style=
	Jay Ajayi	28	style=		align=left style=
	Derrick Henry	28	style=		align=left style=
14	Ricky Williams	27	style=		align=left style=
	Lee Suggs	27	style=		align=left style=
	Ricky Dobbs	27	style=		align=left style=
	Collin Klein	27	style=		align=left style=
	Bernard Pierce	27	style=		align=left style=
	Kenneth Dixon	27	style=		align=left style=
	Anthony Wales	27	style=		align=left style=
	Blake Corum	27	style=		align=left style=
22	Leon Burns	26	style=		align=left style=
	Lydell Mitchell	26	style=		align=left style=
	Brock Forsey	26	style=		align=left style=
	James Conner	26	style=		align=left style=
	Najee Harris	26	style=		align=left style=
27	Ricky Williams	25	style=		align=left style=
	Travis Prentice	25	style=		align=left style=
	Ian Johnson	25	style=		align=left style=
	Will Worth	25	style=		align=left style=

Single Game

	Player	TDs	Date	School
1	Howard Griffith	8	style=		align=left style=
	Jaret Patterson	8	style=		align=left style=
3	Showboat Boykin	7	style=		align=left style=
	Marshall Faulk	7	style=		align=left style=
	Montel Harris	7	style=		align=left style=
	Keenan Reynolds	7	style=		align=left style=
	Kalen Ballage	7	style=		align=left style=
8	6 – Ethan Holschen NCAA 14

Notes and References

1. Web site: Career Leaders and Records. 2022-09-04. NCAA.
2. Web site: NCAA changes policy on football stats. 2002-08-28. 2014-09-11. ESPN.com. AP.
3. Web site: Pumphrey breaks NCAA record, SDSU wins Las Vegas Bowl. 2016-12-17. 2022-10-02. ESPN.com.
4. Web site: Kirshner . Alex . Blame the NCAA for Donnel Pumphrey breaking Ron Dayne’s record with fewer yards . SB Nation . 2022-10-02 . 2016-12-18.
5. Web site: Kurtenbach . Dieter . Sorry, but Donnell Pumphrey didn't really break Ron Dayne's FBS rushing record . FOX Sports . 2022-10-02. 2016-12-17.
6. Web site: Cunningham . Kevin . Ron Dayne says Donnel Pumphrey should have an asterisk by his name regarding rushing record . Saturday Tradition . 2022-10-02. 2016-12-17.