50 greatest college football players this century, ranked

• 2x Doak Walker Award
• Walter Camp Award
• 2x Consensus All-American (2006, 2007)
• 2x SEC Offensive Player of the Year (2006, 2007)
• 2x First-Team All-SEC (2006, 2007)

Adrian Peterson may have been the most physically dominant runner of this era and Reggie Bush may have been the most exciting. Neither rushed for as many yards, scored as many touchdowns, or burned opposing defenses as many ways as Run DMC though.

In three seasons at Arkansas, McFadden put up three straight 1,000-yard seasons. As a freshman, he ran for 1,113 yards, topped it with 1,647 yards as a sophomore, then rounded out his career with a 1,830-yard junior season. He was a two-time consensus All-American, twice finished top-five nationally in rushing, became the SEC’s first back-to-back rushing leader since Hershel Walker, and became the only player besides Ricky Williams to win the Doak Walker Award twice.

In addition to being one of the most dominant pure running backs in college football, he also caught two touchdowns, scored on a kickoff return, and threw seven touchdowns out of the Wildcat formation. And instead of piling up stats against non-conference opponents and SEC bottom feeders, McFadden played his best against the best competition.

2,928 of his 4,590 yards came in 21 games against winning SEC teams and ranked non-conference opponents. His 6.0 yards per carry in those games is better than his career average and his five best individual performances came in games against Alabama, LSU, South Carolina, and Georgia. His 321-yard game against Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks in 2007 is tied for the highest single-game rushing total in SEC history.

McFadden did all of this without the benefit of a Heisman Trophy winner handing him the ball or an offensive line loaded with offensive talent paving the way.

Bonus Fact: McFadden has 24 games with 100-plus rushing yards and 13 with 150-plus, both more than any other running back since 2000.