It’s not surprising that more eyes are on the college football season when it’s closer to kickoff than winding down. In college fantasy football (CFF), eliminated teams care less, and players who disappointed early on leave a bad taste in CFF players’ mouths. Here, we dissect over the last four weeks (playoffs included, so potentially six) which returning running backs had the top weighted opportunity shares, in other words, a bellcow.
Elite Usage and Definitions
The table above sorts the top weighted opportunity shares among returning players in the 2025 season. The definition of weighted opportunity is (Rush Att * 1.0) + (Targets * 1.5). This, instead of raw touches, gives a better indication of how valuable a running back’s role was in selected weeks. Targets, on average, are worth 1.5x a rush attempt, thus, players with more receiving work are usually the top scorers at each position.
Noted above, but for clarification, players who have elected to go to the NFL draft are not included in the sample because they are not returning and won’t be eligible in CFF. Additionally, the last four weeks, not four games for players, were chosen to allow for potential redshirts, opt outs, and the staff seeing what they have. College teams operate significantly different at year-end than any other time in the season.
Known Commodities
Many of the players above were key contributors all season long in CFF leagues but deserve to be showered with praise regardless. Desmond Reid, the Pitt runningback by way of Western Carolina, had a monster 2025 season, and his role was unchanged down the stretch, leading the country with a whopping 33.0 weighted opportunities per game, buoyed by an insane 7.3 targets per game. He returns as one of the most productive backs in the country.
Darius Taylor finishes second here as PJ Fleck cannot help himself. Taylor received significant work in the 2024 season, one marred by injuries and arguably too much usage. There’s no disputing the value of the Minnesota running back, and with Taylor, expect another 1st round selection in 2025 CFF drafts.
Our favorite dual-threat out of Rice, Dean Conners, finished top-10 in the last few weeks but was top-five the entire season. Although he only averaged 14 rush attempts, his five targets per game ranked fourth on this list. Conners returns in 2025 thanks to the Junior College ruling, giving him one final season of eligibility. He will spend it somewhere other than Rice as he entered the portal in the Winter window.
Freshmen Seizing the Moment
The sample date range and size are no mistake. By the end of the season, freshmen with significant talent and projectable usage for the next season start to come on in more prominent roles. Tre Wisner’s workload at Texas is the most notable, especially in the playoffs. Wisner saw more usage in 2024 than planned, as CJ Baxter missed the entire season with an ACL tear, and Jaydon Blue played a backup role. Wisner saw at least 17 touches in every game and above 22 in all but one. A bigger back at 6’0″ 226lbs, he also caught passes and averaged 3.7 targets per game. Texas does return Baxter and has freshman Jerrick Gisbon on the roster. However, Wisner’s 26.5 weighted opportunity ranked 6th among returning backs.
Breakout star, really from start to finish, was Ahmad Hardy. Now Missouri-bound, Hardy came into Louisiana Monroe and dominated from week one onward. It’s no secret that he’s a reliable workhorse running back, with a 1,351-yard 13-touchdown season to his resume already. How he fares at Missouri, a significant level up in competition, is to be seen.
Baylor’s Bryson Washington was a redshirt freshman in 2024, but his number was called, and he didn’t look back. Another player listed 6’0″, 200+lbs; his second half of the season was electric. In his final six regular-season games, he ran for at least 113 yards in five of six and 11 touchdowns in those contests. Entering 2025, it’s hard to envision a world where Washington isn’t a bell cow in a high-powered Baylor offense led by Sawyer Robertson.
Northern Illinois turned to true freshman Telly Johnson Jr. when Antario Brown went down, and he did not disappoint. He had three carries of 20+ in the final five games and profiles as a potential bell-cow entering the next season. He’s likely to split with fellow freshman Jaylen Poe, but given his 19.6 weighted opportunity share late, Johnson is wheels up.
Most of the players here were lower-end recruits. LSU’s Caden Durham is one of the few four-stars that made an immediate impact. The sixth-overall running back in the class, Durham emerged as a reliable receiver for the Tigers and finished the season averaging 19.3 weighted opportunities per game. Durham has elite speed at 205lbs, but bellcow upside is questionable. He had two games over 14 attempts during the season but did have multiple four-reception games. Durham’s top comps include Jahmyr Gibbs, Bayshul Tuten, and Jerrick McKinnon.
A final note, one on Arkansas true freshman Braylen Russell. You have no idea the physical toll that multiple portal entries have on a person. His 20-carry game against Texas Tech in the bowl was a welcome surprise despite averaging 2.5 yards per attempt. He’s a quality athletic running back, but without much sample size and the portal fiasco, it’s a murky 2025 projection.
Emerging Bellcows or CFF Fool’s Gold – Rounding Out the Top
The remaining players are non-freshmen who did not dominate all season, the target of the article. Many are second or third-year players that had yet to emerge on their respective teams or depth charts.
First is Buffalo running back Al-Jay Henderson. Henderson returns with another year of eligibility for Pete Lembo’s Bulls and emerged as the engine of the offense to end the year. He was highlighted earlier in the off-season, noting he had 39 rush attempts in five weeks, followed by 20.2 in the final eight. Henderson is a trustworthy breakout candidate who should be prioritized in Campus2Canton supplemental and CFF drafts after Buffalo doubled their offensive EPA/play in 2024.
With CJ Campbell out of FAU, you have a mixed bag for what 2025 has in store. A transfer to Rutgers looked positive until a breakout performance by Antwan Raymond in their bowl game. Campbell brings more experience to the room, especially as a pass catcher (averaging five targets in the final three games), but Raymond has a leg up on comfort within the system. Given a potential split, both could end up in the CFF fool’s gold category.
Wake Forest’s Demond Claiborne was finally given the keys to the backfield in 2024. In his third year, he broke out en route to a 1,303-yard, 13-touchdown season for Dave Clawson. He enters as the Demon Deacons’ lead back in 2025 in an offense primed for running back production with offensive coordinator Rob Ezell. Ezell joins Jake Dickert’s staff at Wake Forest after a multi-year stint with South Alabama. Claiborne finished eighth among returning backs in weighted opportunities in the sample.
Is Emmett Johnson the most underrated returning running back for a Power 4 team that nobody talks about? In his final four games, Johnson averaged 23.4 weighted opportunities but, most importantly, 5.8 targets per game for the Cornhuskers. He was highly utilized as a receiver, with 170 receiving yards in the final four games on 23 receptions. Johnson is listed at 5’11” 200 lbs. He has above-average athleticism, including 88th percentile burst with athletic comps that include Justin Jackson and Tyjae Spears. Nebraska lost Gabe Ervin to transfer and has not brought in an additional running back in the portal, giving Johnson a leg up entering 2025.
Quick Hits
The more detailed notes above focus on the top ten returners at the position. The back half of the top twenty features more uncertainty and Group of Five players.
— A surprising entry here is running back Jamal Haynes from Georiga Tech. Haynes averaged 22.7 weighted opportunities but only 12.9 fantasy points in CFF leagues. At his size (5’9″ 190 lbs) and prior usage, Haynes is unlikely to repeat this workload, especially with the addition of Penn running back Malachi Hosley.
— UTSA’s Robert Henry is another beneficiary of the Junior College ruling. Returning in 2025 for his final season of eligibility, Henry saw 21.8 weighted opportunities per game and double-digit carries in six of his last seven. Skepticism is justified given his limited role to start the year and in 2023, but he was the most efficient UTSA running back and saw the increased workload. Remember that his final two best games came against North Texas and Temple.
— Duke was a pass-heavy team in 2024, given their 7% pass rate over expected, but running back Star Thomas was their bellcow. He entered the transfer portal to end the season and has yet to find a home, but is visiting Tennesee. It’s hard to envision Thomas landing a spot with 20+ weighted opportunities in 2025.
— Bloomington added a new running back for the 2025 season in Maryland’s Roman Hemby. Hemby saw significant usage down the stretch in the passing game, averaging six targets in his final three. He was largely inefficient (again) in 2024 but does step into a room that loses two significant pieces in Ty Son Lawton and Justice Ellison. He joins the next player on the list in former UAB back Lee Beebe Jr. Expect another split for Cignetti’s Hoosiers.
— Another “never wrong, just early” candidate enters the fray in Coastal Carolina’s Braydon Bennett. His usage in the final few games is a ray of hope in an intriguing profile that has not been put together for a meaningful stretch. The Chants run a hot-hand approach at RB. Don’t fall for it in CFF drafts.
— UNLV turns over its coaching staff in 2025 following the hire of Barry Odom to Purdue and Dan Mullen stepping in. Odom, and by extension, Brennan Marion, rotated their running backs consistently. Still, by the end, Jai’Den Thomas emerged as the lead back with double-digit rush attempts in seven of his last nine games, rushing at a 5.6-yard per carry clip. The 180 lb. Thomas did see an increased workload, but with a new offense, scheme, and size concerns, he will need to rely on efficiency.
