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It escapes me now. Sometime over the last week I heard a discussion about Notre Dame Fighting Irish running backs, but I can’t remember who was leading the conversation. I do recall the base statements about the Irish “spreading the wealth” in regards to the number of carries its backs got over the years.
While we celebrate names like Julius Jones, Autry Denson, Jerome Bettis, Reggie Brooks, and others; there have been quite a few quality backs that could have started at many other schools in the country. It was a wonderful curse- especially during the Holtz years when Lou would recruit a myriad of backs each year and then figure out what to do with them after their arrival in South Bend.
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For some reason, I tend to look back and think more about the backs that never really got a ton of carries. It’s my default mode, to admire the underappreciated and underused. I came up with a small list of backs from around 1994-2004 that fit this description.
Poll
Favorite under the radar running back?
This poll is closed
-
18%
Robert Farmer
(113 votes) -
0%
Jaime Spencer
(6 votes) -
0%
Clement Stokes
(6 votes) -
38%
Tony Driver
(242 votes) -
31%
Rashon Powers-Neal
(197 votes) -
9%
Other
(62 votes)
Do you have a favorite running back on that list? If you marked “other” in the poll above, please share with us your choice in the comment section below.