Who are the top running backs in SEC history?

We’ve spent the last several weeks flipping through team-specific media guides, glancing over highlight film and nearly coming to blows at our home office determining this 25-member comprehensive list of the league’s best running backs.

Editor’s note: The SDS staff weighed multiple factors during our SEC’s all-time running back rankings process including career statistics, individual awards, importance to their respective team and the era in which they played.

5.) KEVIN FAULK, LSU (1995-98)

This three-time All-American ballcarrier held 17 LSU and SEC records during his tenure after rushing for a program-best 4,557 yards and 46 touchdowns to cap an illustrious career. One of the league’s top all-purpose standouts ever, Faulk managed a still-standing SEC-record 6,833 total yards (rushing, receiving, return) in Baton Rouge.

Faulk posted 22 games of at least 100 yards rushing, scored three times on special teams and was considered one of college football’s all-around best players as a collegian. His talent was well-utilized by the New England Patriots at the next level and over the course of a 13-year career (all with the Pats), Faulk managed three Super Bowl titles and was named to the franchise’s 50th Anniversary Team.

Career numbers:

4,557 yards rushing, 46 TD; 600 yards receiving, 4 TD

Individual superlatives:

All-American (1996-98); All-SEC (1996-98), UPI College Football Player of the Year (1987)

NFL Draft:

No. 46 overall (second round) in 1999

4.) BILLY CANNON, LSU (1957-59)

The hometown kid was brought LSU football to the forefront in the late 1950s, you’d be hard-pressed to find a player more decorated in the backfield during his tenure in the SEC. A winner of consecutive National Player of the Year honors, Cannon led the Tigers to their first national championship in school history as a junior before concluding his career with the Heisman Trophy by a landslide margin in 1959.

The Tigers were ranked No. 1 in 13 consecutive Associated Press polls during the 1958 and 1959 football seasons, something that had never been accomplished prior to Cannon’s arrival. LSU nearly won a second consecutive national championship during Cannon’s senior season, but came up a couple yards short due to a one-point loss at Tennessee.

Cannon won three AFL championships as a professional and is one of the few players in history to have played the duration of the league’s 10 years of existence.

Career numbers:

1,867 yards rushing, 19 TD; 522 yards passing, 2 TD; 2 Punt Return TD

Individual superlatives:

All-American (1958-59); All-SEC (1957-59); UPI National Player of the Year (1958-59); Heisman Trophy (1959); Chic Harley Award (1958-59); LSU Hall of Fame; College Football Hall of Fame

NFL Draft:

No. 1 overall in 1960

3.) DARREN MCFADDEN, ARKANSAS (2005-07)

Cut from a rare mold of size, power and speed, McFadden could do it all during his stint with the Razorbacks, twice winning the Doak Walker Award (nation’s top honor for a running back) while finishing as the runner-up twice in Heisman voting. McFadden’s 4,590 yards rushing is second-most all-time behind Herschel Walker and he’s one of the SEC’s only ballcarriers in our Top 25 to also throw and perform on special teams with immense success.

As Houston Nutt’s primary threat in the ‘Wildcat’ direct snap formation, McFadden recorded three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, was a two-time consensus All-American and averaged 5.8 yards per carry career despite 785 attempts — the seventh-most all-time in league history and second only to Walker as a three-year standout. McFadden’s 321-yard explosion against South Carolina in 2007 is a single-game SEC record.

Career numbers:

4,590 yards rushing, 41 TD; 365 yards receiving, 2 TD; 205 yards passing, 7 TD

Individual superlatives:

All-American (2006-07); All-SEC (2005-07); Jim Brown Trophy (2006); Walter Camp Award (2007); Doak Walker Award (2006-07)

NFL Draft:

No. 4 overall in 2008

2.) BO JACKSON, AUBURN (1982-85)

Bo knows.

Widely-considered the best player in Auburn football history, the Tigers’ multi-sport star is one of the greatest athletes of the 21st century a star on and off the field who went on to star in Major League Baseball and the NFL. On the Plains, Jackson was a fearless running back who won the Heisman Trophy in 1985 as a 1,700-yard ballcarrier and hit 17 homers as a middle of the order slugger. He was dominant on the track, too.

Auburn’s all-time leading rusher holds four of the Top 9 most impressive single-game performances in program history and is second on the school’s rushing touchdowns (43) list behind Cadillac Williams.

Jackson played nine MLB seasons (including the strike-shortened 1992 campaign) and four years in the NFL after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Career numbers:

4,303 yards rushing, 43 TD; 272 yards receiving, TD

Individual superlatives:

All-SEC (1983-85); All-American (1983-85)

NFL Draft:

No. 1 overall in 1986; Fourth round MLB in 1986

1.) HERSCHEL WALKER, GEORGIA (1980-82)

Chiseled from a granite statue, the SEC’s all-time leading rusher is the perfect artform of an ideal running back, an unstoppable talent who showcased tremendous agility, breakaway speed and strength. Walker posted an SEC record nine 200-yard games, 28 100-yard games and reached the end zone 49 times on the ground — a league-high among running backs (Tim Tebow holds the overall rushing TDs mark).

College football’s best player during his era, Walker guided the Bulldogs to a national championship as a freshman in 1980, the first of three All-American seasons. He won the Heisman as a junior in 1982 after being robbed of the award twice as a finalist the two previous years according to most football historians.

The three-time All-American skipped his senior season between the hedges for a short stint in the USFL where he ripped off 5,562 yards and 88 touchdowns over a three-year span. He was selected in the fifth round of the 1985 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys and played 13 seasons across four different franchises.

Career numbers:

5,259 yards rushing, 49 TD; 243 yards receiving, 3 TD

Individual superlatives:

All-SEC (1980-82); All-American (1980-82); UPI College Football Player of the Year (1982); Walter Camp Award (1982); Maxwell Award (1982); Heisman Trophy (1982); Georgia Hall of Fame; Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame; College Football Hall of Fame

NFL Draft:

No. 114 overall (fifth round) in 1985