Woody's Top 2025 Freshman RBs

The best of a weaker class

1. Ousmane Kromah, Florida State

Kromah was the only freshman in this class who enters the season in my top tier of recruit model at 93.85% (top tier is 93+). He has great size and already proved he can handle a full workload as he was used in both the rushing and receiving game in high school.

I focus only on the last two years for recruits but we see a back who remained efficient both years with heavy involvement in the receiving game. Averaging 30+ fantasy points per game and double digits in the receiving department is a massive boost for his odds of making noise quickly in a Florida State offense without a clear leader as Roydell Williams and Kam Davis as the main competition. While his QB Castellanos and OC Gus Malzahn have not heavily targeted the RB position the past two years in Boston College or UCF respectively, Kromah is able to make the most of any chances he gets.

2. Gideon Davidson, Clemson

The main thing for Davidson I want to know is his weight. HC Swinney in an article during the first week of spring camp said Davidson is well north of 200 pounds. That is well above the 193 number on his high school 247 profile and the initial 185 number on his first Clemson bio which had me nervous for a moment. All the buzz this spring has been on Davidson and for good reason as he is super explosive in the run game with some verified athleticism from his track days. He came in with an 88.46% in my model with the main knock off keeping him out of the 90s being his high school size keeping him out of the feature recruit type.

Adam Randall is a project athlete converting full time to RB who will get some work. Other than him, Haynes as a third year guy is recovering from a torn ACL in late December and David Eziomume who was a year 1 zero for my metrics with a shot to now be buried as a sophomore by the Randall and Davidson. I would like to have seen Davidson flash more as a receiver so that will need monitoring. Clemson looks loaded across the board with skill guys for Klubnik so getting the guy who may emerge as the lead back in a dangerous offense is well worth knowing.

3. Alvin Henderson, Auburn

Bad competition level will be one of the main reasons for people to doubt Henderson. I could understand that but I refuse to hold strength of schedule against kids who do not have control over the location of where they live. What matters to me is can these guys be studs on the field. If Henderson was only putting up mediocre rushing numbers I could see why maybe there is some concern. But Henderson is absolutely blowing away the opponents as the heart of his offense. The team in 2024 only had 480 passing yards and 5931 rushing yards. That means Henderson accounted for 57.3% of the total yards while being almost 5 yards more efficient per carry than his backfield mate the QB Atkins. The receiving game lacking (even though he was responsible for 11.7% of the receiving yards as a senior) is the main concern to watch for his profile with a 92% in my model.

Alvin Henderson enters Auburn as an early enrollee in January which will be great to build on his frame (200 on reruiting service 247 but 194 on Auburn website) while learning Hugh Freeze’s offense. Durrell Robinson as a UConn transfer, Alston, and Cobb seem like the veteran challengers he will need to overcome and fellow freshman Mabson to hold off. Veteran preference will happen early on so monitor spring news to see if Henderson can climb his way up as Freeze needs a positive step forward to keep building on the recruiting class he put together last year. Their spring practices kick off on March 17th.

4. Shekai Mills-Knight, Ole Miss

Pure film take here as I can not seem to confirm his stats for junior and senior years. He will not be an early enrollee for Ole Miss so we will have to see how he does when joining the team in the summer. The good news is that Mills-Knight will be battling for reps against Logan Diggs, Kewan Lacy, Dominique Thomas, and Jordon Simmons. I will let you look up the career stats for all those names but none is inspiring to secure a role that Knight could not steal. Mills-Knight is a great athlete who flashed some usable receiving potential at the All-American Bowl. His film is littered with the skills that will let him succeed when given the opportunity. He has no problem letting his blocks develop while knowing exactly when to stick his foot in the ground and get north-south. Seems like a perfect one cut runner who can use his speed to rip off big chunks which is nice to see when he has feature back size. He does a good job with his angles too to handle defenders with jukes or slight angle adjustments to pick up extra yardage. We could easily be looking at a Judkins 2.0 moment of another freshman being involved for Ole Miss to help ease in new starter Austin Simmons. Anywhere inside the top 4 for Mills-Knight is appropriate.

5. Bo Jackson, Ohio State

Bo steps into the Ohio State backfield at a great time with TreVeyon and Judkins off to the NFL. The 2025 cast will include James Peoples, CJ Donaldson, Turbo Rogers, and TC Caffey. Only Peoples took any reps last season. The RB coach has made it clear all reps will be earned so Bo Jackson early enrolling is a great sign to earn time. Donaldson is the only one who has massive receiving upside; the rest were all fairly similar on a per game basis. The gamble here could be great as the run game will be a solid component to ease up blitzing the new QB for Ohio State in 2025. I personally like Peoples to lead the backfield but Jackson could prove that he is capable of pulling away more work than expected.

6. Caden Knighten, Baylor

Baylor got my favorite underrated guy in this class. I did a whole article breaking down that you can view with the button below without me repeating the same thing.

Since the article was published, we have already seen Richard Reese hit the portal so that leaves Bryson Washington as the main guy with Knighten fighting for reps with Pendergrass and Michael Turner, a fellow freshman RB who also graded pretty well for me.

7. Marquise Davis, Missouri

Davis is an early enrollee in a room that just lost three of its top four running backs from last season. The only returner is their third down back in Jamal Roberts. Ahmad Hardy should be the guy who ends up as the starter but this is a coach who loves to run the ball which could allow a second dude to get some work. Davis is kind of an unknown as a receiver but reports suggest he should be adequate to handle the basic checkdown work that running backs can see. A lot will depend on the QB situation for how high this offense can soar in 2025, but Davis seems like a much safer play than Kewan Lacy was last year. He could become the running mate for Hardy in a way like what Louisville has.

8. Akylin Dear, Alabama

Akylin (AK) Dear enrolls early at Alabama so that is yet another positive RB outcome for my list so far. Dear joins with an 85% in my recruit model with the main concerns being his slightly below preferred yards per carry and the question mark of his receiving game abilities. I don’t mind throwing a shot at him proving he can develop into a major contributor in the offense. I do have some concerns as most years since 2020, DeBoer has not really gone with just one guy who became a major focus. That gets compounded with Keelon Russell being a mobile QB who will steal some carries away. I am not sure what the outcome will be since the team does have Jam Miller, Richard Young, Daniel Hill, transfer Dre Washington, and Kevin Riley. While I think he has talent to get into the rotation, it may be hard to unseat the older guys with overlapping skill sets. Talent is there though so keep an eye on him. Just not overspending to get him yet.

Honorable Mentions: Tojuan Peyton (Georgia State), Daune Morris (Tennessee), Karson Cox (UCLA), Conor Booth (Nebraska), Jeff Overton (VA Tech), & Javin Gordon (Tulane).

Final Word: There are other guys out there but once we got through the top names, it really comes down to who do you believe is in the best position to be relevant in year 1 and step into a major role by year 2. Being a Year 1 zero as a RB is not likely to produce NFL results we like. The honorable mentions are guys I would monitor as late values in C2C supplemental drafts as they land in spots or have skill sets that may lead to being assets we want from the jump. I would definitely look to see if any spring news is helping support their cause before taking the honorable mentions seriously though. This is definitely not a class to overload on without more incoming reports.