50 greatest college football players this century, ranked

• Doak Walker Award (2014)
• Consensus All-American (2014)
• Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year (2014)
• First-team All-Big Ten (2014)

After initially committing to play at the University of Iowa, Melvin Gordon flipped his decision and chose instead to stay instate and play for Wisconsin.

He arrived at Madison to a crowded backfield as a freshman in 2011 and barely saw the field behind All-American and Doak Walker winner, Montee Ball, and former Big Ten freshman of the year, James White (now with the New England Patriots). After appearing in only four games, he took a redshirt and returned in 2012 as a redshirt freshman. He saw more carries (62) than he had the previous season and ran for 621 yards, giving him an impressive 10-yard average.

In 2013, as a redshirt sophomore, with Ball and White departed for the NFL, Gordon became the lone feature back and broke out with a 1,609 rushing-yard season, good for second in the Big Ten and tenth among all running backs nationwide that season. 1,000, 1,200, 1,500 yards is a career year for most running backs but as a junior in 2014, Gordon absolutely demolished his previous single-season high when he ran for 2,587 yards and scored 29 touchdowns for the Badgers.

He fell just yards shy of breaking Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record and four touchdowns shy of tying Montee Ball’s conference record of 33. Ball rushed for more career yards at Wisconsin but never eclipsed the 2,000-yard mark in a single season and it took him almost 300 more rushing attempts. Gordon’s staggering 7.8 yards per carry average over the course of his career ranks second in NCAA history.

Key Stat: Gordon ran for over 250 yards in four games in 2014 and a career-high 408 yards against Nebraska. He also had four touchdowns in that same game and averaged 16.3 yards per carry.