泥田藏铁蹄
(A muddy field hides the strongest hoof.)
– Anonymous
This is undoubtedly a great year once again for RBs in CFF, but unfortunately it seems that most of the community have clued into the merits of hammering RBs early on in drafts. The result? The cupboard is picked pretty bare by the mid rounds, but I do believe there is a class of players in the late, late, rounds that offer some incredible workhorse upside.
I actually did an article just like this last year featuring three players: SMiss’ Moses Gray, SMHU’s Elijah Green, and SDSU’s Lucky Sutton. Well, that was a one out of three hit rate evidently but again, in this range if you manage to find a 200-carry gangster in one out of three RBs taken that is a big win in my opinion.
I feel much better about each of the four names listed today compared to the three released this time last year. With the exception of Sutton, I didn’t have a lot of conviction in the other two.
Jamar Curtis (SacSt) – May ADP: NA
Curtis rushed for 1,000+ yards in back to back seasons with Lafayette at the FCS level in 2023 and 2024 before transferring to Sacramento State in 2025.
His first season in Cali was marred by injury, but the highlight was a 24-105-1 rushing performance in Week 13. Per an interview on the G5 Hive his name was mentioned as the most likely to get the first carry week one in 2026, and it sounds like he could be a potential bellcow for the Hornets for the entire duration of the season assuming he stays healthy.
The head coach of Sac. State is a man named Alonzo Carter, who was previously RBs coach at Arizona and San Jose State under coach Brett Brennan. The most notable nugget from his history is that in the final season at San Jose State (2023), running back Kairee Robinson finished second in the Mountain West Conference with 1,194 rushing yards and led the conference with 18 rushing touchdowns.
Both Quail Conley and Ismael Mahdi fell just short of 1000 total yards in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and in Conley’s case, he scored a total of nine TDs.
Overall, I wouldn’t say that Carter has a history of bellcows under him as RBs coach, but it does sound like he may be planning to give Curtis the Kairee Robinson-treatment this upcoming fall based on a quote from this article:
Carter said he urged Curtis to stay put, that he wants to gear the offense around the back.
The OC is Eric Kiesau, who accrued most of his coordinator experience with Boise State (OC 2020, co-OC 2017-19). With the exception of the COVID season, there was a 1,000-yard rusher in each of those seasons.
Samuel Brown (TEM) – May ADP: 319.5
It’s true that Temple players are a bit of a gamble because the team may not score much, but last year’s RB1 Jay Ducker did pretty decently.
The sources around the program have raved this offseason about RU transfer Samuel Brown, who was an early bright star at his former P4 program before injuries derailed his time in New Jersey. At a lower level, he could end up being a big fish in a little pond.
Head coach KC Keeler is now in his second year with the program after spending the last 11 seasons at Sam Houston. I wouldn’t say he is a selling point here–with the exception of Ramon Jefferson, there wasn’t a 1,000-yard rusher during Keeler’s time with the Bearkats.
The OC, Tyler Walker, was in his first season with Temple last year when he featured Ducker as the RB1 (180 touches in 12 games), and before that he was the OC at FCS program Montana State, where his top two RBs ran for over 1,000 yards on 199 and 184 carries. Those are the only two seasons where he held the title of OC so far in his career.
James Jones (NMSU) – May ADP: NA
It doesn’t get much more positive than when the head coach refers to someone as a “special player” which is what NMSU coach Tony Sanchez said about Delaware State transfer James Jones.
Jones was one of the most efficient runners in the FCS last year, averaging a ridiculous 9.8 yards per carry on 98 totes, resulting in almost 1,000 yards. Think about that for a second-and I’m always the guy who preaches volume as king for predicting rushing production-this kid almost hit 1,000 yards without even 100 carries. That’s wild.
Of course, the G5 is a higher level of competition than the FCS, but I’m not sure by how much, especially in NMSU’s Conference-USA.
Again, per the writer interviewed on this year’s G5 Hive interview for NMSU, it sounds most likely that Jones will receive the first carry to open 2026. This writer could also be dead wrong-we’ve seen that happen many times-but it is at least a piece of information we can use from a program that doesn’t have a lot of intel coming out of camp.
This one is more so a talent over systems play as neither the head coach or the OC have a positive track record of usage/production at the RB position.
Antonio Martin (MTSU) – May ADP: 157.5
Martin had a forgettable year in 2025, landing at KSU after initially transferring to ULM. He was probably better off with the Warhawks, but hey, would have could have should have, am I right?
Lest we forget that he was a 1,000+ yarder in 2024 with FCS SE Louisiana, and now the coach that he played under that season is the OC at MTSU, where Martin has since transferred to.
MTSU themselves are replacing their star RB Jekail Middlebrook, who transferred to Virginia. I want to say that once we get more info, this player could ascend, but I am also not kidding myself that we are going to get a lot of actionable intel out of middle Tennessee. DJ Taylor is another player who flashed as freshman in 2025 and should compete for snaps as well.
The one piece of info we did receiver-per an interview on the G5 Hive-the writer mentioned Martin as the likely candidate to take the first carry in 2026 and said he expects him to get the bulk of the workload. These quotes should always be taken with a grain of salt, but that was a pretty strong endorsement.
Martin appears to be pushing up in ADP into the late-mid, early-late rounds now with his ADP landing him in around the 13th round range for a standard 12-team draft. I suspect in many leagues you can still find him available after round 15.
If you’re interested in more of my terrible CFF takes, you can find me on X at @volumepigs.
