| No. 10 – Montana Grizzlies | |
|---|---|
| Position | Running back |
| Class | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | Cokato, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight | 208 lb (94 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Dassel-Cokato (Cokato) |
| College |
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| Awards and highlights | |
| |
| Stats at ESPN | |
Eli Gillman is an American college football running back for the Montana Grizzlies. He won the 2023 Jerry Rice Award.
Gillman attended Dassel-Cokato Senior High in Cokato, Minnesota. As a senior, Gillman had 43 touchdowns and ran for more than 1,900 yards. He helped lead Dassel Cokato High to its first state championship. [1]
He committed to play college football at the University of Montana. He had offers from Central Michigan, Northern Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Georgetown, and Dartmouth. [2]
He had the most rushing yards by a freshman in the University of Montana's history and won the Jerry Rice Award. [3] He also had the longest touchdown run in the program's history. [4]
His sophomore year he racked up 175 yards and a touchdown in a win over Western Carolina. [5] For the season he had more than a thousand yards rushing and 15 rushing touchdowns. [6]
In September 2025 he had 198 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns from 15 carries against Central Michigan. [7] In October 2025 he rushed for 123 yards and teo touchdowns against Cal Poly. [8]
| Season | Games | Receiving | Rushing | Punt Returns | Kick Returns | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | Ret | Yds | Avg | TD | Ret | Yds | Avg | TD | |
| 2022 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 8 | 65 | 8.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 15 | 15 | 19 | 140 | 7.4 | 0 | 194 | 968 | 5.0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 34 | 17 | 0 |
| 2024 | 13 | 13 | 18 | 176 | 9.8 | 2 | 157 | 1,092 | 7.0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career [9] | 30 | 30 | 38 | 321 | 8.4 | 2 | 359 | 2,125 | 5.9 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 34 | 17 | 0 |