Ranking The RB Seasons -- #8

#8--Hodges Mitchell, 2000
Stats: 11 games, 224 carries for 1118 yards (5.0 ypc) and 8 tds.

The season: Micah Hart once described the fans reaction to Hodges Mitchell as pretty much being pissed off that he wasn't Ricky. That pretty much sums up everything we know about Mitchell's two years. 2000 was the last time Texas finished with under 10 wins in Mack's tenure. It included a loss at Stanford, a bowl loss to a solid Oregon team, and the first time OU would hang 60+ on Texas.

The ranking: Hodges Mitchell's two years represented a transition period for Texas as the Horns went from Ricky to Roy. 2000 was the weaker of Hodges' rather unremarkable tenure as the starting running back. Monster games against Tech and KU (229 & 264 yards respectively) seem to be outliers, placing Hodges 2000 campaign #8 on our list.

Ranking The RB Seasons -- #9

#9--Cedric Benson, 2001
Stats: 12 games, 223 carries for 1090 yards (4.7 ypc) and 12 tds.

The season: Ced B came to the 40 Acres as one of the highest ranked running backs in his class. Texas went 11-2 with one of the more disappointing endings of the Mack Brown era, losing to Colorado in the Big XII Championship game with a potential thwacking from Miami in the national championship game on the line. Ced played sparingly in the tune-ups before not playing against Oklahoma, although there's no telling if he would have improved on Ivan Williams' 12 carries for 30 yards. Ced came through the second half of the season, including a 213-yard perspective against mighty Kansas.

The ranking: Ced B in '01 comes in at a very controversial 9th. We'll give you a moment to gasp in amazement/disgust. Ok, carrying on. He shared carries to begin the season, didn't play against Oklahoma, but showed flashes of brilliance that we would see again in the second half of 2003. Despite getting the majority of the running load for only 7 games, Ced finished the year ranked 37th nationally.

A New Feature: Ranking The Seasons (Running Backs -- #10)

We're sorry that things have been so slow of late, we've been busy. To sum up the last week: Texas won twice, the Hornets are good, Wes Welker is going to play QB in the Super Bowl, Aggy lost to Baylor, and Oklahoma still sucks. There, we're all caught up.

A little something we've been working on is a review of running backs in the Mack Brown era. Mack has been at Texas for ten years now, and Texas has (allegedly) had a running game for all ten of those years. Should this feature work out, we may expand it to other facets (read: passing game -- sans 2004), but here's the plan: we will rank the seasons based on the primary running back's performance. This will take other factors into consideration, such as splitting carries with another back (or VY), number of games played, and national rushing averages. Hopefully this week we can chat a bit about recruiting, Texas hoops, and how glad we are that A&M lost to Baylor at home.

On to the feature --

#10--Jamaal Charles, 2006
Stats: 12 games, 156 carries for 831 yards (5.3 ypc) and 7 tds

The season: Texas went 10-3, beating Oklahoma but losing the final two games of the regular season (no reason to name the teams, we all remember that crap). Jamaal Charles gets the nod here on the list over Selvin Young. The two split carries all season, leading Texas to the fewest rushing yards and yards-per-carry by a starter since 2002. JC ended the season ranked 60th in the country in yards, had only one 100-yard rushing game all season, and ended Mack's streak of 1000 yard rushers.

The ranking: JC in '06 ranks last on our list. He finished with 50 fewer rushing yards than he had in 2005 despite having 40 more carries. JC06 ranks last on our list in yards and touchdowns. We are understanding that he split carries with Selvin Young, but he still finishes last on our last.

Next up -- #9