The two best touchdown runners in college football this season are quarterbacks. West Virginia’s Michael Hawkins Jr. and Army’s Cale Hellums are tied for the national lead with 16 rushing touchdowns each, per ESPN.
And they are almost the same player on paper:
- Michael Hawkins Jr., West Virginia: 163 carries, 836 yards, 5.1 a carry, 16 TDs, in eight games.
- Cale Hellums, Army: 159 carries, 840 yards, 5.3 a carry, 16 TDs, in seven games.
Four yards apart. Same touchdowns. The next-closest player in the country is Florida running back Jadan Baugh with 13.
Who wins the race?
I’ll say it: Hellums. He has played one fewer game, he runs an offense built to hand him the ball at the goal line, and he gets the next shot. Army plays at Memphis on Saturday at 7 p.m. Central on ESPNU. West Virginia (5-3) is off until Nov. 7 at Texas Tech. One rushing touchdown in Memphis and Hellums has the national lead to himself for at least a week.
Hawkins deserves more noise than he’s getting, though. West Virginia has scored at least 24 in every game this season, and its quarterback is a big reason why.
Army is 5-2 and still has Air Force and Navy on the schedule. If Hellums is leading the country in rushing touchdowns in December, the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy games just got a lot more fun to watch.
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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.
