Every year, CFF players clamour for the next ‘big thing’ at the RB position. While a history of prior production isn’t a guarantee, these 12 systems are a good place to start when looking for value.
Great, so he’s a degenerate. That means he’s capable of anything.
– Pete Campbell, Mad Men
While most College Football fans focus on meaningless things like ‘winning’ and the ‘CFB playoffs’, elite CFB fans find themselves enamoured with the mechanics of predicting which systems will produce the most productive CFB players.
If you’re a CFF player, you already know how important the RB position is. Thankfully for us, some systems within CFB exhibit patterns of usage and production that offer a logical place to start when attempting to forecast where the yards and TDs will be gained in the upcoming season.
Today, I have prepared notes on six such systems (the other six can be found in Pt. I of this series). This list is not meant to be exhaustive, as there are other notable systems for this position that are not covered in this article.
PJ Fleck, Minnesota
PJ can’t help himself, can he? Even when he vows to start spreading touches, his offences inevitably end up relying on one runner. Darius Taylor figures to be the lead man once again in 2025, though the Gophers did bring in multiple RBs via the transfer portal.
Fleck became infamous within the CFF world through his work with Mohammed Ibrahim in the early 2020s. He’s been dishing out 20-30 touches a game to his RB1s ever since. While Taylor’s carry load decreased in 2024, he was targeted extensively, which resulted in a nearly 250-touch season for the star sophomore. So much for load management.
Brett Bielema, Illinois
Bielema loves to run the football. Throughout his time with Wisconsin and Arkansas, his offences were responsible for more 1000-yard rusher seasons than not.
His time at Illinois has been a little more volatile in this regard. Chase Brown went nuclear under his watch in 2022, but outside of him, there hasn’t really been a notable runner under the current staff.
Kaedin Feagin looked to be that next entity in the 2024 offseason, but a slow start to the year and a campaign-ending injury prevented that ship from ever leaving the station. Feagin will return in 2025, but there are more questions than answers with this backfield as things currently stand.
Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
Drink caught my attention in 2021 for his stellar work with Tyler Badie. Most notably, once it was clear that the Tigers weren’t playing for anything significant as a team, Drink and his staff made sure to give Badie his touches to pad his stats.
It was simultaneously awe-inspiring and sickening to watch. Following that season, there was a down year in 2022 and then another nuclear performance from tailback Cody Schrader in 2023.
Prior to arriving at Mizzou in 2020, Drinkwitz’s 2019 App State offence produced a 1,400-yard rusher via Darrynton Evans. Three years at NC State produced another three 1,000-yarders from 2016-2018. He even spent a year at the aforementioned Boise State as OC in 2015. And yes, that offence produced a 1,000-yard rusher too.
ULM freshman Ahmad Hardy joins via the transfer portal, and CFFers will be crossing their fingers that his stellar play will translate to the SEC.
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
I love Gundy. This guy is a total wildcard, and guessing which version of his offence we’re going to get each season is part of the fun. Maddening as he may be half the time, the frustration and headache are all worth it when Gundy finds his guy.
Ollie Gordon and Chuba Hubbard are my two favourite runners under Gundy at OK State. Both were true sophomores when they went nuclear. Both were taller, lankier runners. But even if we go back to the mid and early 2010s, Gundy’s Cowboys have seen many a fatass pig come through Stillwater. And these runners came in all shapes and sizes.
If we follow the patterns of Gundy’s volatility, 2025 will be a down year for this backfield. That wouldn’t be surprising given their current personnel. Maybe 2026 is the year we feast again?
That being said, part of the fun with Gundy is that there really isn’t any rule to follow here. It might not be a nuclear-level performance like Gordon’s or Hubbard’s, but a Jaylen Warren-esque performance from Georgia State transfer Freddie Brock (or someone else) would work just fine.
Kirk Ciarrocca, Rutgers
Ciarrocca learned from the best, serving as the Gophers’ OC from 2017-2019 and 2022. Mo Ibrahim surpassed 1000 yards under Ciarrocca’s watch in 2018 and 2022, and RU’s Kyle Monangai did the same for the Knights in 2023 and 2024.
As if studying under that mad bastard Fleck wasn’t enough of a pedigree, Ciarrocca’s four seasons as OC at WMU produced three 1000-yard rushers, before handing the baton off to Tim Lester.
This backfield is tracking similarly to Michigan’s in that they brought in a transfer who CFFers expected to take over as RB1 in 2025, before a notable performance from a young player in the bowl game threw a wrench in that scheme. Antwan Raymond is the young player in this case, and FAU transfer CJ Campbell is the veteran runner coming in from elsewhere.
Kyle Whittingham, Utah
A similarly enigmatic figure, Whittingham’s offences have been pretty inconsistent over the last five years. After a run of 1000-yard rushers every season between 2014 and 2019, the Utes have seen only two since 2020.
In 2021, Tavion Thomas broke out for the Utes with 1,108 yards and 21(!) scores. Micah Bernard quietly made his way for 1,000 yards rushing this past season, as a solid CFF asset.
But overall, this system hasn’t been what it was in the 2010s. Is 2025 the year things return to normal? WSU’s Wayshawn Parker transferred in after a strong freshman season, and some others were brought in as well. Perhaps the most important factor will be that the Utes will be working with a new quarterback—NM’s Devon Dampier.
Dampier himself is a runner, but it remains to be seen how effective he’ll be at the P4 level. His former OC, Jason Beck, came over with him, so there’s some familiarity there to help the transition.
Beck may draw on his experience with the receiving back Le’Quint Allen from his time at Syracuse in 2023 with Parker, who himself demonstrated some receiving ability with the Cougars in 2024.
FYI, in addition to the work I do at C2C, I also do CFF stuff over here:
