Welcome to Underdog Best Balls, an offseason series with a goal of digging into the new faces in the P4 that we’ll need to educate ourselves on as the best ball season draws nearer. The transfer portal has given us a plethora of options, some good, some bad. Let’s talk running back transfers not named Caleb Hawkins!
Cam Cook, West Virginia RB
Cook will be one of the highest transfers taken in Underdog drafts, and with good reason. He ran for 1,659 yards and 16 touchdowns for Jacksonville State last season and joined up with Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia this offseason. He was also valuable in the passing game, bringing in 30 passes for 286 yards. This type of production is hard to ignore.
Did you know that there are zero running back snaps returning for the Mountaineers in 2026? There was never any reason to doubt Cook being the top back in this offense, but that has confirmed it. So, the real question is how effective Cook will be, and is there a max to his usage?
I’m hesitant to fully jump on this bandwagon as he was extremely unimpressive as a young back at TCU. He averaged 3.6 and 3.9 yards per carry on 135 total attempts. Wildly enough, as a sophomore, Cook did score 9 times on 119 attempts.
One interesting note between his time at TCU and Jacksonville State is that he was essentially 50/50 between zone and gap schemes at TCU, while he was 76% zone at Jacksonville State. Could a zone scheme just be a better fit for his style of play? The good news is that last year’s Rich Rod offense was 72% zone scheme for his running backs. Players are allowed to evolve and improve.
Looking at the offensive system Rich Rod has run as a play caller, you do see a bit of variety. He had 3-4 seasons of RBBC at Arizona and in his first year at Jacksonville State. He also had the monster Tre Stewart year in 2024 and two incredible years of Ka’Deem Carey in 2012 and 2013. It does feel like that he’s more than happy to lean on a guy if the room is bare or if the player is that good. Cook feels like a mix of both.
At this point in the offseason, I have Cook as the RB7, right after Desean Bishop and right before Isaac Brown. It feels like a very reasonable spot and one that’ll be pretty on par with how the industry values him.
Congrats to Cook and CFF drafters everywhere for a great landing spot in 2026!
Evan Dickens, Boston College RB
Boston College is another team that has little to no returning running back snaps in 2026. The Eagles return just 7.86% snaps at the position, with those snaps coming from a few younger players that shouldn’t play much of a role this year. Instead, it should be all about Evan Dickens and Nolan Ray. This is what Bill O’Brien has brought in to replace Turbo Richard and Jordan McDonald.
The last two seasons, O’Brien’s offenses have split up the usage at running back a decent bit, but the top guy has had nine and ten touchdowns. It’s that type of production that can provide value in an RBBC. Turbo Richard ended 2025 with a 145/749/9 stat line. The year before that, it was Kye Robichaux and his 175/744/10 stat line that produced value in Underdog drafts.
Liberty doesn’t play a super competitive schedule, but it’s hard to overlook the domination that Dickens had on opponents in the second half of the season. In his final six games, he ran for 100+ and a touchdown in each contest, with three games of 200+ yards and 2+ touchdowns.
During Ballin With My Bestie’s Top 25 RB episode, I have Dickens ranked 24th, but I might be moving him up. While the offense loses both Dylan Lonergan and Grayson James, can it get worse than a 2-win season in 2026? It’s still an ACC schedule that includes plenty of games that shouldn’t be blowouts, even with a completely random quarterback. I don’t think I’d have any issue at all ranking Dickens inside the top 20 at this position right now. He was drafted around RB35 in the P4-only draft we did last month, which feels like a great value.
Javin Gordon, Tennessee RB
Gordon is a 5’9″, 200-lb. sophomore running back who has moved up from Tulane to Tennessee this offseason. And while I like the move from a long-term perspective, I’m not sure I’m seeing immediate success here. He’s certainly relegated to RB2 duties at best, and Desean Bishop has proven to be a very good running back that could easily be leaned upon heavily, ala Dylan Sampson two years ago.
Gordon ran for just 4 YPC last season and was really average against the best competition he faced. He did have a very good game against Ole Miss (the first time), rushing for 35 yards on 8 attempts, but the second time around, his performance was lackluster (6 for 11 yards). UTSA, North Texas, Army, Duke, ECU, Temple, and FAU all kept him below 4 YPC.
Let’s say that Gordon’s efficiency improves at Tennessee. Even then, we’re still looking at a clear RB1B at best and very likely the RB2. This could just mean 529 yards and 7 touchdowns like Star Thomas had in 2025. This ranked Thomas as the RB72 last season, and for that reason, the risk isn’t worth the reward come draft season. Gordon is a guy I’m not interested in at all unless we hear of unfortunate news regarding Desean Bishop this offseason.
