Top 5 Running Back Performances of Week 8 College Football: Ollie Gordon II, Nay'Quan Wright, more

Justin's NCAA college football top running backs from Week 8 of the 2023 season. Top RB performers include Ollie Gordon II and Nay'Quan Wright.

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 six backs rushing for 150 or more yards. Some of those players are mentioned below, but a quick shoutout to the two who aren't: Marquez Cooper (Ball State) and Cody Schrader (Missouri). Cam Edwards from UConn just missed out with 149 yards.

There were also seven backs with at least three rushing touchdowns. Two of those had four and are mentioned below. The six that had three touchdowns were Terion Stewart (Bowling Green), Quinton Cooley (Liberty), Dean Connors (Rice), Carson Steele (UCLA), and Mike Hollins (Virginia).

Below are the top five running back performances from Week 8 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. La'Damian Webb - South Alabama

South Alabama’s La’Damian Webb had four rushing touchdowns in a dominant win over Southern Miss on Tuesday. The Jaguars won 55-3, marking the second week in a row that this team scored 55 points. The team is up to 22nd in the country in points per game at 35.4.

Webb had his second 100-yard game in a row in the victory and his third overall this season. His four rushing touchdowns brought him to 12 on the season, with Webb finding the end zone in six consecutive games.

Through seven games, he’s not quite on pace to outperform last season’s numbers, when he ran the ball 210 times for 1,067 yards in 12 games. But he’s close. Webb currently sits at 103 carries for 578 yards through seven games, and he’s only one touchdown away from tying last season’s 13 rushing scores.

4. Jalen White - Georgia Southern

Back in Georgia Southern’s first game against The Citadel, Jalen White rushed 19 times for 125 yards. He didn’t have another 100-yard game until Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe though, when he carried the ball 26 times for 164 yards and two touchdowns in his team's 38-28 win.

For most of this season, White had split touches with O.J. Arnold, but Arnold saw just five carries this week, gaining 32 yards. It was White’s backfield in this contest.

In his fourth season at Georgia Southern, White is now averaging a career-high 5.9 yards per carry. But he’s tracking behind last year’s 1,131 scrimmage yards, as he’s at 517 scrimmage yards right now. He sits sixth in the Sun Belt in rushing touchdowns.

3. Kye Robichaux - Boston College

Boston College running back Kye Robichaux has had a really up-and-down season. Through six games, his rushing yardage totals look like this: Eight, 94, 64, 40, 12, 165. He’s had 19 or more carries three times -- and nine or fewer carries three times.

Robichaux’s best game of the season came on Saturday against Georgia Tech, as he carried the ball 21 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns. He also added three catches for 54 yards.

It was the second 100-yard game of Robichaux’s career, following a 135-yard effort for Western Kentucky last season in a loss to Indiana. It was also just the second time he’s scored multiple touchdowns, with the first coming back in 2021 when he had a rushing and receiving score in a WKU win over Rice.

2. Nay'Quan Wright - South Florida

While much of South Florida’s rushing production this season has come from quarterback Byrum Brown, who has 567 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground, running back Nay’Quan Wright moved ahead of Brown in rushing yards on Saturday against UConn, rushing 26 times for 186 yards and two touchdowns in his team’s 24-21 win. He’s now up to 590 yards on the season with five touchdowns. Those both mark career highs for Wright, who spent his first four college seasons at Florida, where he was little more than a rotational back.

Much of Wright’s production has come over the last two games. While he rushed for 111 yards to open the season against Western Kentucky, his next five games saw him rush for 37, 62, 32, 45, and 11 yards. Then came last week’s FAU game, when he carried the ball 15 times for 106 yards. Now, this one against UConn. It seems that the Bulls are getting the ball in his hands more and he’s responded with two really strong contests in a row.

1. Ollie Gordon II - Oklahoma State

Last week, Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon earned a spot on this list with his 29 carries for 168 yards and a touchdown against Kansas. It was his third 100-yard game in a row and it looked clear that Gordon was on his way to being one of the country’s best running backs.

But I didn’t expect him to blow those numbers out of the water against West Virginia this week. Gordon again had 29 carries, but this time he gained 282 yards and found the end zone four times. It was just a monster game for Gordon.

After a slow start to the season, Gordon now sits fourth in the Big 12 and eighth in the country in rushing yards and is the Big 12 leader in touchdowns. We’re watching the birth of a star right now. If you haven’t had the chance to catch Gordon play, now’s the time to do so.

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