The NCAA Division I FBS rushing leaders are career, single-season, and single-game leaders in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. [1] These lists are dominated by more recent players for several reasons:
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The NCAA recognizes San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey as the career leading in rushing yards. [1] Pumphrey set the record in the fourth quarter of his final game, the 2016 Las Vegas Bowl, ending with 6,405 total yards. [3] However, this is controversial as Wisconsin's Ron Dayne actually rushed for 7,125 in his career, but all four of Dayne's seasons came before the NCAA recognized bowl statistics (doing so only in 2002) as part of season and career totals. Dayne officially is listed as having eight yards less than of Pumphrey despite only one player having their bowl statistics included. This has been seen as controversial by many fans and writers, who feel that the NCAA should count all pre-2002 bowl statistics as official if post-2002 ones are. [4] [5] Dayne himself congratulated Pumphrey but agreed that counting Pumphrey's bowl stats but not his own was unfair. [6]
Additionally, Pittsburgh's Tony Dorsett would be ahead of Pumphrey if his bowl statistics were counted.
All players on the career list are running backs. The career leader in rushing yards by a quarterback is Navy's Keenan Reynolds, who rushed for 4,559 yards in his career.
The single-season record holder is Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders. Navy's Malcolm Perry rushed for 2,017 yards in 2019, which currently leads non-running back players.
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The single-game rushing record belongs to Oklahoma's Samaje Perine, whose 427 yards in a 2014 game against Kansas broke a record set just the week before by Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon. Prior to Perine and Gordon, the only player to rush for 400 yards in a game was LaDainian Tomlinson. All players on the career list are running backs. The single-game leader for a quarterback is Arizona's Khalil Tate, who rushed for 327 yards in a 2017 game against Colorado.
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The career leader in rushing touchdowns is Navy's Keenan Reynolds, whose 88 career touchdowns passed a record previously held by Montee Ball.
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The single-season record was set by Barry Sanders in 1988. The record for quarterbacks (or any position other than running back) was set by Bryson Daily in 2024.
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The single-game record of 8 is shared by Howard Griffith and Jaret Patterson. Five players have rushed for 7 touchdowns in a game, and many more have rushed for 6.
# | Player | TDs | Date / Team | |
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1 | Howard Griffith | 8 | Sep. 22, 1990 Illinois | |
Jaret Patterson | 8 | Nov. 28, 2020 Buffalo | ||
3 | Showboat Boykin | 7 | Dec. 1, 1951 Ole Miss | |
Marshall Faulk | 7 | Sep. 14, 1991 San Diego State | ||
Montel Harris | 7 | Nov. 17, 2012 Temple | ||
Keenan Reynolds | 7 | Nov. 22, 2013 Navy | ||
Kalen Ballage | 7 | Sep. 10, 2016 Arizona State | ||
8 | 6 – many times |
Ronald Dayne is an American former football running back who played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1999. He also played professional football for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the New York Giants in the first round of the 2000 NFL draft. He also played for the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans.
The Wisconsin Badgers football program represents the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the sport of American football. Wisconsin competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Big Ten Conference. The Badgers have competed in the Big Ten since its formation in 1896. They play their home games at Camp Randall Stadium, the fourth-oldest stadium in college football. Wisconsin is one of 26 College football programs to win 700 or more games. The program has been one of the most successful since the 1990s. Wisconsin has had two Heisman Trophy winners, Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne, and has had twelve former players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
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The 1999 Rose Bowl was the 85th Rose Bowl game and was played on Friday January 1, 1999, at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. It was a college football bowl game at the end of the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season. Wisconsin defeated UCLA by a score of 38–31. Ron Dayne of Wisconsin was named the Rose Bowl Player of the Game. He tied a modern Rose Bowl record with four touchdowns. This was the first year that the Rose Bowl became part of the Bowl Championship Series, ending a long-standing agreement between the Big Ten and the "West Representative" (PCC/AAWU) and the first year that the game was branded with corporate sponsorship. Unlike the other bowl games, the sponsor was not added to the title of the game, but instead as a presenter, so it became known as The Rose Bowl Game presented by AT&T.
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Montee Ball Jr. is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Denver Broncos. He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, twice earning consensus All-American honors. Until November 2015, Ball held NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) records for the most career rushing touchdowns with 77 and the most career total touchdowns with 83. He was selected by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft.
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Samaje Perine is an American professional football running back for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, and was selected by the Washington Redskins in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL draft.
Donnel Laray Pumphrey Jr. is an American college football coach and former player who is the running backs coach for California State University, Sacramento, a position he has held since 2023. Pumphrey played college football as a running back for the San Diego State Aztecs. He is the official all-time leader in rushing yards in NCAA Division I FBS history. Pumphrey was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL draft, and spent offseasons with the Eagles and Detroit Lions. He played for the DC Defenders of the XFL in 2020.
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