The Top 10 TXHSFB Running Backs Ever 

A disclaimer before we begin: This is an extremely fun but totally impossible task. Like, even more impossible than the Top 10 Quarterbacks of All-Time ranking we did last week. Running back was the first “most important” position in Texas high school football when the sport began in the early 1900s. And, more so than college or professional teams, it can still be the most important position on the field now. There are about 30 guys who don’t just have a case to be in the top 10, but you have every right to be actively mad that they weren’t included in the top 10. And if you are, be sure to take all complaints to the Dave Campbell’s social media pages. Tell them Carter Yates’s absurd, borderline-irresponsible list sent you.

Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order):

Adrian Peterson (Palestine, 2002-03): After joining the football team ahead of his junior season, Peterson rushed for 2,051 yards as a junior and 2,960 yards as a senior.

Traylon Shead (Cayuga, 2006-09): 10,292 career rushing yards rank fourth all-time in TXHSFB. Complete physical mismatch at the Class 1A level.

Billy Sims (Hooks, 1972-74): Ran for 7,733 yards, was a two-time All-State selection, and led Hooks to its only state championship appearance in school history. 

Joe Washington Jr. (Port Arthur Lincoln, 1969-71): Arguably the greatest RB in PVIL History. An All-American player who ran for 1,406 yards and 1,708 yards in his final two seasons.

Trey Williams (Spring DeKaney, 2009-11): Rushed for 8,103 yards in his career and led Spring DeKaney to its only state championship in school history. 

10. Kaegan Ash (Mount Enterprise, 2022-25)

On a list of all-time greats, I think Ash is the rare player whom the recency bias actually works against. There’s a strong argument that Ash should be No. 1 on this list after rushing for 4,562 yards in the 2025 season, surpassing Kenneth Hall’s 72-year record of 4,045 yards in the 1953 season. But it’s important to note that Ash accomplished this feat in 15 games, while Hall only had 12.That means Hall averaged 337 yards per game, while Ash only averaged 304 (yes, I know how absurd it is to say only there).

Take your pick for the most absurd Kaegan Ash record: 599 yards in a single game against Overton, 4,562 yards in his senior season, or 11,382 yards over his career. Don’t forget that he also had 111 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks for his senior year, too. 

I don’t have Ash higher on this list for things beyond his control. For starters, he played in the state’s smallest UIL 11-man football classification. He also didn’t win a state championship, although taking Mount Enterprise to the state semifinals is almost as impressive. The Wildcats had an all-time winning percentage of around .400, with just two double-digit-win seasons since 1956 before the Ash era. But, mostly, I think I just need a couple more years to digest what Ash just accomplished.

Post TXHSFB Career: Ash has signed to play linebacker at Texas Tech. You read that correctly, the state’s all-time leading rusher isn’t even playing running back in college. 

9. Jacquizz Rodgers (Lamar Consolidated 2004-07)

For the three seasons that Jacquizz Rodgers starred at running back, Lamar Consolidated went 37-4 with a state championship appearance. In the five years before Rodgers, the Mustangs went 6-44 combined. In the 18 seasons since he graduated, the Mustangs have had three winning seasons. 

Rodgers won the first-ever Mr. Texas Football award in 2007 after leading Lamar Consolidated to their only state championship in program history. That year, he rushed for 2,872 yards and 42 touchdowns, including the game-winner in the state title. For his career, Rodgers finished with 8,302 rushing yards. His 136 career touchdowns were first in TXHSFB history at the time of his graduation. 

Post TXHSFB Career: Despite his record-setting career, Rodgers had just eight offers coming out of high school. ‘Quizz’ quickly proved everyone had the wrong answer about him once he got to Oregon State, becoming the first freshman in Pac-12 history to win Offensive Player of the Year. Rodgers, an All-American and three-time All-Conference player, was inducted into the Oregon State Hall of Fame in 2024. Rodgers played eight NFL seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before retiring in 2018. 

Rodgers’s first cousin, Landen Williams-Callis, was recently honored as the second-ever solo high school athlete on the cover of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. Through his junior year, Williams-Callis has rushed for 7,554 yards and 133 touchdowns. It’s fitting Williams-Callis is chasing Rodgers’s records now – he’s looked up to his cousin his entire life. 

8. Earl Campbell (John Tyler, 1970-73)

Campbell might not be No. 1 on this list, but he unequivocally has the best nickname. The ‘Tyler Rose’ fit not only because he grew up as one of 11 children next to a rose field, but because he also blossomed into one of the most famous TXHSFB players of all time. 

As a senior at John Tyler High, Campbell rushed for 2,036 yards while leading the Lions to an undefeated Class 4A State Championship. His refusal to be brought down matched his stubbornness in high school. Campbell was a middle linebacker who never even wanted to play running back. When the coaches moved him to offense, he purposefully dropped every handoff until they allowed him to play both ways. That story actually explains why Campbell ran the ball with a middle linebacker’s mentality. There wasn’t anybody he wouldn’t take on one-on-one. He even tried running over Bevo, the University of Texas’s 1,000-pound live steer mascot, during a 1977 game.

Post TXHSFB Career: If you’re a kid today who best knows Earl Campbell as the guy on the hot-dog package at the grocery store, let me teach you what your teachers should be talking about in school. Campbell is enshrined in the Texas High School, College, and Pro Football Halls of Fame. He was the first Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Texas after leading the nation with 1,744 yards and 19 touchdowns in the 1977 football season. Then, he was named the NFL’s Player of the Year three times as part of the Houston Oilers.

7. Robert Strait (Cuero, 1985-88)

TXHSFB has rarely seen a physical specimen – especially in the late 80s – like Robert Strait. Legend has it that the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder once kicked the ball through the opposite uprights on a kickoff. He rushed for 100 or more yards 41 times in his career, leading Cuero to three consecutive state championship game appearances from 1985-87. His junior season in 1987 is one of the best in state history. Strait ran for 3,515 yards, 52 touchdowns, and earned a state championship trophy. By the time he graduated, he was second all-time behind Kenneth Hall with 8,411 career rushing yards. Cuero is a TXHSFB dynasty with 11 state championship appearances, and Strait is the program’s all-time best player.

Post TXHSFB Career: Strait signed to play for coach Grant Teaff at Baylor out of high school, widely regarded as the highest-rated recruit in program history. Whether it be a chronic knee issue that led to surgery, or disciplinary issues such as a weeklong suspension for curfew violation in 1993, Strait never fulfilled the astronomic expectations that followed him from Cuero. He rushed for 1,856 yards over four seasons with the Bears. Strait was drafted in the sixth round of the 1994 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns, but never played a down.

In March 2003, Strait was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for drug charges, the most serious in a string of legal issues that began in 1998. After serving his time, Strait got his life back on track. He now works as a contractor at the post office and is raising two kids. In 2022, he was inducted into the Cuero High School Hall of Fame.

6. Jerod Douglas (Converse Judson, 1991-93)

Jerod Douglas didn’t just lead Converse Judson to back-to-back state titles in 1992 and 1993. He broke a Class 5A record with 237 rushing yards in the first title game, then snapped his own record a year later with 245 yards and four touchdowns. 

By the time he graduated, Douglas was the all-time leading rusher in the state’s largest classification with 6,188 yards and 85 touchdowns. Douglas was inducted into the TXHSFB Hall of Fame in 2003 and the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Post TXHSFB Career: Douglas could’ve gone anywhere in the country, but chose to attend close-by Baylor. From 1994-97, his 2,811 career yards ranked second in school history at the time of his graduation. His single-game record of 210 yards against the University of Texas in 1995 played a large part in his earning All-Southwest Conference accolades. Douglas lives in San Antonio and is married with six children.

5. Rodney Thomas (Groveton, 1987-90)

Rodney Thomas was the engine of Groveton’s 32 consecutive wins and back-to-back Class 2A state titles in 1989 and 1990. As a senior, Thomas was the first player in TXHSFB history to rush for over 100 yards in all 16 games. His 8,441 career rushing yards were behind only Kenneth Hall at the time of his graduation. Thomas last suited up for Groveton in 1990, but he remained ever-present in the community through the rest of his life. When Thomas passed away in 2014, over 1,000 people crammed into the Groveton High School gymnasium for his funeral.

Post TXHSFB Career: Thomas was a standout running back at Texas A&M during one of the program’s most successful periods. The Aggies went 28-0-1 in Southwest Conference play, while Thomas finished fourth all-time with 3,014 career rushing yards and second all-time with 41 career rushing touchdowns. He was a two-time unanimous all-conference selection and is enshrined in the Texas A&M Hall of Fame.

Thomas seemed set for a productive NFL career after racking up 947 yards as a rookie for the Houston Oilers. But the franchise drafted Heisman Trophy-winning running back Eddie George that offseason. Thomas was relegated to backup duty for the rest of his seven-year NFL career.

Thomas died from a heart attack in 2014 at the age of 41.

4. Eric Dickerson (Sealy, 1975-78)

Eric Dickerson is one of the most iconic players in TXHSFB: the rec spec goggles, the neck roll, the long, galloping strides of a 6-foot-3 frame. Before he was a Pro Football Hall of Famer, he was a high school legend. Dickerson rumbled for 2,960 yards and 27 touchdowns as a junior and was named Parade Magazine High School Player of the Year. For an encore, he led the Sealy Tigers to their first state championship in program history, setting a title game record in the 1978 Class 2A State Championship with 296 yards and four touchdowns. Sealy went on to win four state titles in the 1990s, but Dickerson is still by far the greatest player in program history.

Post TXHSFB Career: Dickerson set SMU records with 4,450 career rushing yards and 47 touchdowns as part of the Pony Express running back tandem with Craig James. The two-time All-American is an SMU legend. For years, however, he was persona non grata. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the SMU booster provided football players with cash, cars, and off-campus apartments to play for the Mustangs. After the NCAA sentenced SMU to the Death Penalty – a two-year ban that turned into four decades of darkness – Dickerson unfairly became the poster child of the pay-for-play era. During his high school recruitment, Dickerson made national news by driving a Gold Trans Am van paid for by a Texas A&M booster after he committed to the Aggies. 

Dickerson had a Hall of Fame NFL career, finishing second all-time with 13,259 career yards at the time of his retirement. An NFL-record 2,105 of those yards came in a single season in 1984 as part of the Los Angeles Rams. 

3. Kenneth Hall (Sugar Land, 1950-53)

Ok, technically, Hall played quarterback. But in Sugar Land High’s (now Fort Bend Dulles) single-wing offense, he was a running back at heart. For 72 years, Hall was the only man in state history who had ever rushed for 4,000 yards in a single season. His once-unbreakable record may have been snapped by Kaegan Ash in 2025, but his legendary status remains intact. Hall’s 4,045 rushing yards in the 1953 season came in just 12 games, while Ash - and hundreds of thousands of other high school running backs - have had a potential 16 games to catch him. The “Sugar Land Express” rumbled to 11,232 career rushing yards, which was a national record until 2012 when a little-known running back named Derrick Henry surpassed him. Just how dominant was Hall in the early 1950s? In one game against Houston Lutheran, he rushed 11 times for 520 yards, an average of 47.3 yards per carry. Man, how we wish HUDL existed back then.  

Post TXHSFB Career: Hall committed to play for the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant at Texas A&M, but his career was short-lived. He quit before his freshman year began after he was switched from running back to fullback and constantly berated by the ferocious Bryant. Over two decades later, Bryant sent an apology letter to Hall, saying he’d always regretted how he’d handled Hall’s talent. 

After leaving Texas A&M, Hall joined the Canadian Football League and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. He went on to play four seasons in the NFL and still holds the Houston Oilers record with a 104-yard kickoff return. 

Hall passed away at the age of 89 in March of 2025. He is memorialized in the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame (Class of 1983), Ken Hall Stadium in Missouri City, and the Ken Hall Trophy awarded to the high school player of the year by the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. 

2. Cedric Benson (Midland Lee, 1998-00)

On Monday, we unveiled Richmond Randle running back Landen Williams-Callis as the second solo high school football athlete ever to be featured on the cover of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. Recognizing that honor has me nostalgic for the first guy that did it: Midland Lee’s Cedric Benson.

There are many tall tales about Benson. Myth-making comes with the territory of rushing for 8,423 yards and leading a football-crazed town to three consecutive state championships. My personal favorite comes from a 2019 feature from the Midland Reporter-Telegram. It’s halftime of a pivotal district game, and Midland Lee is struggling mightily. A frustrated Benson approaches head coach John Parchman in the locker room.

“Coach, I’ve got to have some help,” Benson said. “I can’t do this all by myself.”

“Why not?” Parchman asked. “The great ones do.”

Benson sauntered off, but returned 30 seconds later. 

“I’ll carry it every play if you want me to,” Benson said. “Let’s kick their ass.”  

Benson didn’t win those three state championships by himself. But he was the singular player who drew out-of-towners to watch a Midland Lee game on a Friday night. Ironically, the most prosperous time in the Midland Lee program’s history came during an economic recession when oil was around $17 per barrel. According to a 2019 Midland Reporter-Telegram story, city leaders proposed building a dual-sport facility in 1999. The idea was to give the community something to rally around. Instead, Midlanders rallied around Cedric Benson. His heroics - and Midland Lee’s No. 1 national ranking - convinced the city to approve construction on the project, which opened in 2002. Today, it’s called Astound Broadband Stadium. Most still refer to it as the “House that Benson Built.”

Post TXHSFB Career: Historically, Benson’s era at Texas is sometimes glossed over because it came between Ricky Williams’s Heisman Trophy season and the 2005 National Championship. In the pantheon of Texas running backs from Williams to Earl Campbell to Bijan Robinson, Benson is the only player in program history to rush for 1,000 yards in four straight seasons. After winning the Doak Walker Award for the nation’s best running back as a senior, Benson was drafted fourth overall by the Chicago Bears. He played eight NFL seasons and eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark three times as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. Benson passed away at 36 years old in a 2019 motorcycle accident.

1. Johnathan Gray (Aledo, 2008-11)

Originally, Johnathan Gray set out to be a better running back than his father. James Gray was a star at Fort Worth Wyatt and Trimble Tech High School before becoming Texas Tech’s all-time leader in rushing touchdowns (52). Instead, Johnathan became the best Texas high school football running back ever. Gray holds the national record with 205 career touchdowns. For perspective, Mount Enterprise’s Kaegan Ash is in second place with 175, a full season’s worth of touchdowns behind. 

We could talk all day about the record 1,225 career rushing attempts and 10,889 rushing yards that rank third all-time in state history. But Gray’s largest impact is turning Aledo into the Texas high school football Title Town we know today. When Gray was moved up to the varsity team as a freshman in 2008, Aledo had won just one state championship in 1998. Gray engineered three state championships from 2009-11. In a sense, he pushed a snowball down a mountain that’s still rolling today. Aledo leads all programs with 12 state championships.

Aledo’s continued dominance is one reason Gray’s heroics stick in our minds. But he also always saved his best performances for the state championship stage. Against La Marque in the 2010 title game, Gray rushed for 323 yards and eight touchdowns, which is still a UIL record 11-man football record. 

Post TXHSFB Career: Gray, the No. 1 recruit in the nation and Gatorade National Player of the Year, came onto the University of Texas campus with Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams-like expectations. Unfortunately, serious injuries – and the coaching change from the legendary Mack Brown to Charlie Strong – prevented him from reaching that level. Gray, who’d already had two shoulder surgeries in high school, tore both his left and right Achilles. He finished his Longhorn career with 2,607 yards in four seasons. Gray is now a sports and performance trainer.