SEC running backs poised for big year

Georgia’s Chubb is among league’s top four for 2017.

Perhaps no conference has a deeper tradition of excellence at running back than the SEC. From Herschel Walker to Bo Jackson, Emmitt Smith, Kevin Faulk and Shaun Alexander, the list is littered with some of the best to ever play college football.

If talent is any indicator, the 2017 SEC running back class looks poised to keep the league’s proud legacy alive. Eight 1,000-yard rushers return this fall and they’ll be supplemented by the addition of six blue-chip signees.

There are four elite rushers to watch this upcoming season. All of them are on track to earn a nice NFL payday, and they’ll start 2017 on at least a few Heisman watch lists.

Kamryn Pettway

2016 stats: 1,224 yards rushing, 5.9 YPC, 7 TDs 100-yard games: 7 Best performance: Ole Miss (30 carries, 236 yards, 1 TD)

Auburn arguably fielded the conference’s best offensive line in 2016, and the Tigers handed the ball to Pettway a league-high 20.9 times per game. His percarry average? It was 5.9, good for just 13th-best in the conference. Of his five 150-yard games, four came against Mississippi State (bad run defense), Arkansas (worse run defense), Ole Miss (worst run defense) and Arkansas State (laughably outmatched).

That said, Pettway is tough to bring down and could’ve gone pro this year. He is a grinder.

Bo Scarbrough

2016 stats: 812 yards rushing, 6.5 YPC, 11 TDs 100-yard games: 2 Best performance: Washington (19 carries, 180 yards, 2 TDs)

Crimson Tide fans were finally treated to the full Bo Scarbrough experience at the end of last season. Hampered by injury for much of

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He looks like Derrick Henry 2.0 and runs with that same sort of reckless abandon. Had he not broke his right leg in the third quarter of the Clemson game, we’d probably be talking about Saban’s sixth national title right now. If Scarbrough can produce like that over a full season, the Heisman might be back in Tuscaloosa this winter.

Nick Chubb

2016 stats: 1,130 yards rushing, 5.0 YPC, 9 total TDs 100-yard games: 5 Best performance: UNC (32 carries, 222 yards, 2 TDs)

The joint return of Sony Michel and Chubb at Georgia is pretty shocking. With his injury history and more than 500 carries, Chubb had every reason to go pro. But he’ll be back, much to coach Kirby Smart’s delight, to spearhead one of the best rushing attacks in the country alongside his senior backfield mate.

Those who watched Chubb play before his 2015 injury know that, while he was healthy in 2016, he hadn’t quite gotten his full burst back. Still, that didn’t stop him from dropping a 200yard effort on UNC just 11 months after tearing multiple ligaments in his left knee. He broke 1,000 yards behind a weak offensive line, on an offense that was often listless, and helped freshman quarterback Jacob Eason adjust to the SEC.

With another offseason of rest and training under his belt, Chubb should regain that explosiveness. Combine that with his punishing style, and it’s not hard to foresee a huge year for him.

Derrius Guice

2016 stats: 1,387 yards rushing, 7.6 YPC, 106 yards receiving, 16 total TDs 100-yard games: 6 Best performance: Texas A&M (37 carries, 285 yards, 4 TDs)

Guice is considered the successor to Leonard Fournette. In reality, he seized that title well before the end of last season.

With his superstar teammate limited by a lingering ankle injury, Guice steamrolled his way through most of LSU’s opponents while averaging an SEC-best 7.6 yards per carry. Oh, and he broke the LSU single-game rushing record that Fournette had set earlier in the season.

Guice is a ferocious runner who’s shifty, smart and a threat to house it on every play — basically everything you look for in a college running back.

AP Last season Georgia’s Nick Chubb, coming off a terrible knee injury in 2015, was not running at his top speed. He hopes to be back to full strength in 2017.

ROGELIO V. SOLIS / ASSOCIATED PRESS Auburn’s Kamryn Pettway had big games against weak defenses, but he’s difficult to tackle and could have left for the NFL this season.