BYU Football Top 100: No. 5 Jamaal Williams, All Time Best Running Back

Today is the start of the College Football season and BYU Football starts in only five more days!

As I write this article I am listening to College Gameday because today there are going finally be some live College Football games. I wish that the NCAA would have scheduled a few more games throughout the day, but at least having a few games is going to be really nice.

Being five days away from the start of the season it is no longer about speculation and hope, it is about execution and preparing for Utah. In order to beat them though, they are going to find a way to have success in the running game, and if they had today's player in the countdown, they probably wouldn't have any issues.

No. 5 Jamaal Williams - Running Back - 2012-2016

BYU is QB U, but they have had quite a few running backs that have been really good. Notably some that have made this list already include J.J. Di Luigi, Peter Tuipulotu, Ronney Jenkins, Matt Bellini, Lakei Heimuli, Jamal Willis, Curtis Brown, Harvey Unga, and Luke Staley. Although Unga and Staley both have legitimate arguments to be names the greatest running back of all time, none of them quite did what Jamaal Williams did during his career.

First off, Williams was a four year starter for the Cougars which started when Williams was only 17 years old. Although he had some issues off the field, he stuck with the team and played all four years breaking a lot of records on the way.

Rankings

Impact A+

Fans didn't realize probably how good Jamaal was until he wasn't playing. In games where he was limited in playing time due to injury, the Cougars lost close games to Nevada, South Florida, Memphis, Utah and Boise State twice. While there is no guarantee the Cougars would have won all those games with him in, I can confidently believe they would have gone 5-1 at least in those games. That is how impactful he was to the team. He was the second punch alongside Taysom Hill and when the two were both playing well they were unstoppable.

Statistics A+

Jamaal Williams is the record holder for career rushing yards, points in a game and touchdowns in a game, rushing yards in a game and career 100 yard rushing games. When you put all of that together it is pretty clear to see why Williams edged out all of the other running backs. In total for his career, Williams had 3,901 rushing yards, 567 receiving yards, 36 touchdowns, 5.37 yards per carry and only two lost fumbles.

Memorable Moments A-

While Williams has a lot of memorable moments, he takes a bit of a hit in the same way that Taysom Hill did. He missed big games due to injury. Those six games that were mentioned earlier could have completely changed the season and possibly ended the streak against Utah. Despite those missed opportunities, Williams has so many memorable moments it almost makes up for it. Here is a list of just some of those moments.

• Completely taking over against Toledo and scoring 5 TD's on 286 rushing yards.

• The run against Michigan State that Williams looked up on the big screen and saw the defender coming so he adjusted his angle.

• 162 yard game against Arizona in Kalani's first game as Head Coach.

• 182 yards against No. 15 Texas to be the second punch with Taysom Hill.

• After a slow start, Williams' 66 yard touchdown run vs Nevada. He averaged 14.6 yards per carry that game.

• Seeing how muddy he was against Wyoming in the Poinsettia Bowl as he went off for the game winning touchdown run down the sideline.