The SWAC often gets titled as the conference of the quarterback and wide receivers. The offenses in the conference are known to be high flying and capable of generating a lot of points. The running back position in the conference sometimes gets forgotten about but to forget about the ball carriers who have cut their teeth in the SWAC would be a mistake.
One of the best backs to ever play the game of football Walter Payton was magical at Jackson State rushing for more than 3,500 yards in his career as a Tiger. Another Tiger by the name of Destry Wright assaulted the school and conference record books in the late 90s, rushing for 4,020 in three seasons and becoming the SWAC’s all-time leading rusher until a young man by the name of Lenard Tillery from Southern University left his
own mark. Tillery came to Southern as a walk-on but left as the school’s all-time leading rusher and the conference’s all-time leading rusher with 4,856 yards rushing and 45 touchdowns over his career.
Over the years the SWAC has produced running backs like Isaiah Crowell of Alabama State, Frank Warren of Grambling, Brad Baxter of Alabama State, and so many more. This year the league will boast another talented crop of running backs. Let’s take a look at the top 5 running backs in the SWAC for 2019.
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No. 4: Jordan Bentley
Jordan Bentley took the SWAC by storm in 2016 as a true freshman for Alabama A&M. Bentley made his collegiate debut with 851 yards rushing and 9 touchdowns. Those impressive numbers earned Bentley the 2016 SWAC Freshman of The Year award and second team All-SWAC honors.
Bentley’s 2017 season was plagued by injury but he was still able to rush for 427 yards and 5 touchdowns. A season ago he rushed for 514 yards, 7 touchdowns and had a yards per carry average of 6.9 despite being hampered by injury most of the year. Bentley is back for a final run on The Hill and the Bulldog faithful hope that this is an injury free season for him. Bentley has shown flashes of greatness the last two seasons but injuries have kept down his overall production. At 100 percent, Bentley is arguably one the top two backs in the league but we haven’t seen a fully healthy Jordan Bentley since 2016.
If Bentley can get back to his 2016 form, this would really open up the Alabama A&M offense and take pressure off of quarterback Aqeel Glass. Again, Bentley set some high expectations for Bulldog fans after his freshman season, now is the perfect time to live up to those expectations.
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