The modern SEC workhorse back — for those under 30 years old — is Mississippi State’s Anthony Dixon.

A nice player, Dixon accumulated nearly 4,000 career rushing yards for the Bulldogs in four years not by being the most explosive or talented back in the SEC, but by amassing a whopping 910 carries, second all-time.

No other 21st-century back has threatened the SEC’s career Top 5 for most carries, though Arkansas’ Darren McFadden (785 career carries) and Auburn’s Carnell Williams (741 career carries) shouldered an impressive amount of work.

The single-greatest workhorse back in SEC history, though, also could be its most physically talented: Georgia’s Herschel Walker.

Walker owns SEC records for most carries in a single game (47), season (385) and career (994), even though he stayed in Athens for just three seasons and played in just 33 games. Give Walker, say, 50 career college games and he would’ve carried 1,506 times, or more than twice what “Cadillac” did in four seasons with Auburn.

Most teams would protect a player like Walker in 2015, sitting him against FCS opponents, pulling him when the game was out of hand and most certainly limiting him during the team’s spring game (see: Chubb, Nick).

More impressive than Walker’s ability may have been his durability as an athlete, as he also played 16 seasons of professional football before still managing a truncated MMA career about 30 years after his first college carry for Georgia.

Of note, if a running back wants to get a ton of carries in today’s SEC, coach Gus Malzahn is the man to see. Tre Mason ran 46 times in the 2013 SEC championship, falling one carry shy of Walker’s single-game record. In 2013, Mason also managed the fifth-most single-season carries in conference history.

Malzahn, as the team’s coordinator in ’06, also had major input in Arkansas’ offense with McFadden, one season before the back rushed 325 times in ’07.

Check out some of the all-time workhorse backs in the SEC.

SINGLE GAME

1. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 47 (vs. Florida, 1981)
2. Tre Mason, Auburn: 46 (vs. Missouri, 2013)
3. Madre Hill, Arkansas: 45 (vs. Auburn, 1995)
T4. Charles Alexander, LSU: 43 (vs. Wyoming, 1977)
T4. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 43 (vs. South Carolina, 1980)

SINGLE SEASON

1. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 385 (1981)
2. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 335 (1982)
3. Darren McFadden, Arkansas: 325 (2007)
4. Rudi Johnson, Auburn: 324 (2000)
5. Tre Mason, Auburn: 317 (2013)

CAREER

1. Herschel Walker, Georgia: 994
2. Anthony Dixon, Mississippi State: 910
3. Dalton Hilliard, LSU: 882
4. Errict Rhett, Florida: 873
5. Kevin Faulk, LSU: 856