Bill ConnellySep 24, 2025, 09:36 AM ETCloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.Follow on X
play0:32End Zone! Ahmad Hardy scores 5-yard rushing touchdownEnd Zone! Ahmad Hardy scores 5-yard rushing touchdown
play3:13Gene Chizik has already identified the ‘best run of the year’SEC Now college football analyst Chizik reviews film of Missouri’s ground game from Week 3, singing high praises of running back Ahmad Hardy.
Jamal Roberts rushes in for 16-yard rushing touchdown (0:34)Jamal Roberts rushes in for 16-yard rushing touchdown (0:34)
End Zone! Ahmad Hardy scores 5-yard rushing touchdownEnd Zone! Ahmad Hardy scores 5-yard rushing touchdown
Gene Chizik has already identified the ‘best run of the year’SEC Now college football analyst Chizik reviews film of Missouri’s ground game from Week 3, singing high praises of running back Ahmad Hardy.
SEC Now college football analyst Chizik reviews film of Missouri’s ground game from Week 3, singing high praises of running back Ahmad Hardy.
Robert Henry Jr., and Ahmad Hardy and 2025’s YAC kings
Florida State began the season with a paradigm-shifting (or maybe paradigm reshifting) blowout of Alabama. After going 2-10 a year ago, the Seminoles are back in the AP top 10 like 2024 never happened.
These 12 teams are a combined 41-2. Some were expected to be good but are great. Some had low to middling expectations but are clearly very good. What’s the secret to their relatively surprising success? They are 2025’s college football YAC kings.
On the flipside, it’s hard to achieve your goals if you’re in or near the wrong quadrant of this chart.
Obviously looking at numbers this early in the season comes with loads of disclaimers. The 12 current net YAC leaders mentioned above have combined to play just eight games against teams in the SP+ top 50. Granted, they went 7-1 in those games — proof of concept, perhaps — but there’s a lot of schedule left, and we’ll see who ends up atop this list at the end of the season after wear-and-tear has set in. Still, these are stolen yards, and the thieves get the spoils.
End Zone! Ahmad Hardy scores 5-yard rushing touchdown
End Zone! Ahmad Hardy scores 5-yard rushing touchdown
Gene Chizik has already identified the ‘best run of the year’
Hardy and Roberts have created a level of physicality that few can match. But one of the early stories of 2025 is just how many exciting running back duos college football is producing at the moment. The best one depends on your definition.
Hardy isn’t the sport’s only ridiculous runner, however. We’re blessed with a lot of bulldozers at the moment, led by a guy named Hollywood.
Robert Henry Jr. is on pace for even more than that. After rushing for 1,294 yards over his first two seasons with UTSA, the senior has hit 144 yards or more in every game, and he had a 75-yard touchdown run (with 76 YAC) on his way to a 177-yard performance against Texas A&M in Week 1. How did Colorado State hold the Roadrunners to just 17 points last week? By holding Henry to 28 YAC, 70 yards below his previous season low.
Dylan Riley, one of Jeanty’s many talented Boise State backups last season, got the lion’s share of the work in Week 4 because of a nagging injury to starter Sire Gaines, and he responded with a 171-yard, 132-YAC performance and five touchdowns from scrimmage. He and Gaines are currently averaging 8.5 yards per carry between them.
Against the same Colorado State defense that slowed Henry, Jonah Coleman put up 177 yards (and 119 YAC) in a season-opening win. He was limited by Washington State last week in the Apple Cup (59 yards, 35 YAC), but he scored on a 34-yard touchdown catch and would have racked up more yards had the Huskies not been blowing out the Cougars.
LJ Martin might be the nation’s YAC leader if he were getting more than 13.3 carries per game. Granted, that’s all he has needed to top 100 yards in each game, but he was good against Stanford and East Carolina, and he was downright unfair in the opener against Portland State, gaining 105 YAC in just eight carries. BYU has overcome youth at quarterback by simply being very mean in 2025.
Jai’den Thomas is making UNLV’s offense hum. Cam Edwards, Cam Cook and Rashod Dubinion, meanwhile, are carrying their teams, who win when they top 80 YAC and lose when they don’t.
At this stage in the season, betting odds simply reflect conventional wisdom and can change virtually overnight. So let’s do our part in changing that. All hail 2025’s YAC kings! Hardy and Hollywood for Heisman!
Missouri is now 25-5 since the start of 2023. Like Indiana, the Tigers lost a number of players after last season but nailed a series of transfer portal acquisitions and have started this season 4-0. And after a quiet offseason with more middling headlines than positives, USC, 15-11 in 2023-24, is averaging 52.5 points per game and is already 2-0 in Big Ten play. BYU and Washington have outscored their first six opponents by 226 combined points (and BYU has done so despite starting a true freshman quarterback).
Now, yards are yards. They lead to points, and almost any net yardage figure you come up with will probably give you a list of successful teams at the top. But the yards at the end of a run play, after execution has played out and it’s down to pure physicality, add up. They give reasonably talented teams chances to become winners and extremely talented teams chances to become champs. Not all YAC is the same — a defender nicking your ankle as you run by counts just the same as running over a linebacker — and you can’t count on making the top of this list every year (though Georgia and the service academies come close). But when you do, you’re probably going to achieve at a high level.
Last year’s top six teams in net YAC per game included three playoff teams with incredible running backs (Ashton Jeanty at Boise State, Cam Skattebo at Arizona State and Dylan Sampson at Tennessee), plus two other conference champs (Army, Jacksonville State) and a UNLV team that nearly landed in both categories. In 2023, each of the top 11 teams in net YAC went at least 8-5, six won at least 10 games and two won 13 (Liberty and Georgia). In 2022, 10 of the top 11 won at least eight games, four won at least 11 and two made the four-team CFP (Georgia and Michigan).
There are seven teams highlighted there. All were in the preseason AP top 20, all rank 65th or worse in net YAC per game, two (Alabama and Illinois) lost early-season blowouts that have impacted their rankings significantly — Alabama’s net YAC was minus-70 against Florida State, and Illinois’ was minus-100 against Indiana — and the other five (Clemson, Florida, Kansas State, SMU and South Carolina) have started the year a combined 7-13. Their combined net YAC in those 13 losses? Minus-570 yards, or minus-43.8 per game.
play0:40Touchdown! Daylan Smothers scores vs. DukeTouchdown! Daylan Smothers scores vs. Duke
NC State’s offense has been afflicted by negative plays and iffy blocking, but the Wolfpack are still averaging 31.5 points per game because if Smothers escapes tacklers behind the line, he’s running a long distance thereafter. Projected over 13 games, he’s on pace for a 1,600-yard season, and he has done a lot of it himself. If only he could get some help from his defense too: It’s the reason why the Pack aren’t among the net YAC leaders, and it allowed 45 points to Duke in NC State’s first 2025 loss last Saturday.
play0:39Touchdown! Robert Henry scores vs. Texas A&MTouchdown! Robert Henry scores vs. Texas A&M
Jamal Roberts rushes in for 16-yard rushing touchdown (0:34)Jamal Roberts rushes in for 16-yard rushing touchdown (0:34)
CloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.Follow on X
Most dominant net YAC performances of 2025 (FBS vs. FBS games only)
Running backs averaging over 70.0 YAC per game in 2025
Touchdown! Daylan Smothers scores vs. DukeTouchdown! Daylan Smothers scores vs. Duke
Touchdown! Robert Henry scores vs. Texas A&MTouchdown! Robert Henry scores vs. Texas A&M
Jamal Roberts rushes in for 16-yard rushing touchdown (0:34)
Robert Henry Jr. and Will Henderson III, UTSA (741)
Maurki James and Trequan Jones, Old Dominion (8.37)
Hollywood Smothers and Jayden Scott, NC State (481)
Bryson Donelson and Rayshon Luke, Fresno State (371)
2. Louisiana Tech +192 vs. New Mexico State (49-14)
6. Central Michigan +135 vs. San Jose State (16-14)
1. Hollywood Smothers, NC State (100.8, 5.0 per carry)