Is Alabama the New Running Back U?

As a position group, the Crimson Tide has clearly stood out at running back during the Nick Saban era

Sports Illustrated

Who Is Running Back U.? Georgia? Alabama? LSU?

Sports Illustrated crunched a decade’s worth of data to find out which school has the right to brand itself the new RBU.

And yes, it is the Crimson Tide. 

It ran away with the title as Georgia was a distant second, followed by LSU, Oklahoma and Stanford.

It's the second position group in which Alabama has come out on top in SI's eight-part Position U. series (with three to go as this was part V). Alabama is also the modern Linebacker U.

Specifically the rankings are pieced together after tallying how college programs put players in the NFL, and the success they have when they get there.

Alabama has had three running backs selected in the first round of the NFL draft since 2010: Mark Ingram II, Josh Jacobs and Trent Richardson. That's the most of any college program.

So were the 10 running backs drafted over the same time period. No other program had more than eight. 

Mark Ingram II (2011 first round, 78 starts in NFL)
Trent Richardson (2012 3rd overall, 37 starts)
Eddie Lacy (2013 second round, 51 starts, Offensive Rookie of the Year)
Kenyan Drake (2016 third round, 24 starts)
Derrick Henry (2016 second round, 31 starts)
Josh Jacobs (2019 first round, 13 starts)
T.J. Yeldon (2015 second round, 30 starts)
Jalston Fowler (2015 fourth round, 7 starts)
Damien Harris (2019 third round)
Bo Scarbrough (2018 seventh round, 5 starts)

It didn't factor into the the formula, but Alabama is the only program in college football to have a running back win the Heisman Trophy since 2004: Ingram in 2009 and Derrick Henry in 2015.