Moe Williams was a beast and his single season rushing record won't be touched
Some records are made to be broken. Others are carved into stone. Moe Williams’ 1995 rushing season? That one’s granite. And even though Mark Stoops is known for a run heavy offense, they haven't came within 150 yards of this record.
In a year when Kentucky went just 4–7, Williams ran for 1,600 yards, still the school record. To put it in perspective, that’s the 17th-best single season in SEC history. And he did it on a very bad team that went just 4-7. Williams averaged 145.5 yards per game, scored 17 touchdowns, and once gashed South Carolina for 299 yards in a single afternoon.
It wasn’t a fluke season either. Williams had already put up 928 yards in 1993 and 805 in 1994. But ’95 was different. Defenses knew what was coming, and they still couldn’t stop him. He finished with 294 carries, a true workhorse load, and added 153 receiving yards for good measure. Think Benny Snell but with even less talent around him.
Since then, Kentucky’s offensive identity under Stoops has been run heavy. The modern game leans on quarterback runs and running back committees, making it nearly impossible for anyone to approach Williams’ numbers in a single season. Benny Snell came close with 1,449 yards in 2018, but that still left him 151 yards shy. And that is with a bowl game added in.
Williams’ son Amaree, a four-star defensive lineman, now plays at Florida State — a recruiting miss that still stings in Lexington. But Moe’s legacy is safe.
Barring a seismic shift back to run-heavy football, even by Mark Stoops standards, Williams’ record won’t just stand for another decade, it very well could stand forever. And that’s exactly how Kentucky fans should remember him: the back who carried the ball, the team, and the record book all at once.