Kentucky Football: Who are the top 5 best running backs in school history?

Who are the pound-for-pound best running backs in Kentucky Football history?

Kentucky Football has had an up and down history, there is no disputing that. From Bear Bryant running the show, to a nearly empty Commonwealth Stadium against Vanderbilt in Joker Phillips’s last game as Kentucky’s head coach.

The Wildcats may have never been atop the mountain unless you consider 1950 (a claimed national championship, when deciding who was the best college football team was a lot more complicated than today) but my oh my has Kentucky had some talented running backs.

Kentucky has had extremely talented running backs every decade going all the way back to the early 1960s with Rodger Bird paving his way into Kentucky’s record books, then in the 1970s with Sonny Collins shattering it all and Derrick Ramsey not long after him.

Then in the 1980s with George Adams and Mark Higgs, giving way to the 1990s with Moe Williams, and the early 2000s with Artose Pinner and Rafael Little, and finally Derrick Locke rounding out the 2010s decade.

Head coach Mark Stoops’ tenure has seen a plethora of talented backs also, which is to be expected considering Stoops is now one of the longest-tenured coaches in Kentucky football history. The 53-year old has been at the helm of the UK program since 2012 and in those eight seasons has a 49-50 record.

Stoops has been the benefactor of coaching backs like JoJo Kemp, Boom Williams, Benny Snell Jr, Asim Rose, and even Lynn Bowden Jr.even though he was rushing as a quarterback.

With all the talented listed putting together a top five is a tall task, and most people are very partial to their generation. I’ll try and take an objective look at who I think are the top five to ever run the ball in blue and white.