Wednesday might have been "Back to the Future" day for the rest of the country, but for college football fans, Dec. 12 is the day that will feel like a flashback to 1985.
That’s when the sport’s most prestigious individual award, the Heisman Trophy, will be given to a running back — a rarity in this day and age, but yet an almost certainty given the plethora of top-notch runners this season.
In today’s football environment, filled with spread, up-tempo offenses and rules that favor them over defenders, quarterbacks have dominated both on and off the field while running backs have suffered.
In fact, other than Alabama’s Mark Ingram in 2009, every Heisman winner has been a quarterback since the 1999 season — a major shift from where the sport used to be.
Back in 1985, Auburn running back Bo Jackson became the 12th running back to win the award in a 14-year span, and that’s not including Ohio State’s Archie Griffin’s second Heisman-winning season within that timeframe.
But in 2015, we’re getting a reminder of what it used to look like, however brief it may be.
First, there’s Leonard Fournette, the Heisman favorite by a country mile. Through just six games, the man looks like the second-coming of 1982 Heisman winner Herschel Walker, chalking up over 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns while averaging eight yards per carry and seemingly five broken tackles per play.
For perspective, his 180-yard performance against Florida on Saturday was considered a slow-day.
But he’s far from the only dominant back this season.
Just up in Tallahassee, Florida State’s Dalvin Cook is having a season any player not named Fournette would dream of.
In fact, in any other season, the Seminole would likely be the most talked about player in college football.
Cook has quietly rushed for 955 yards and 10 touchdowns this season while averaging more yards per carry (8.7) than Fournette, using bursts of speed and agility to make opposing defenses look silly with each cut and acceleration — not unlike 1988 Heisman winner Barry Sanders.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney even called Cook "the best running back in the country" earlier this week.
There’s many more, too, like Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott (988 yards, 11 touchdowns), Oregon’s Royce Freeman (997, nine touchdowns) and Alabama’s Derrick Henry (901 yards, 12 touchdowns).
And if it weren’t for the gruesome season-ending leg injury he suffered against Tennessee, Georgia’s Nick Chubb would be right there among those guys, if not better.
At the halfway point of the year, all of those players, plus a few others, have a feasible chance of reaching the 2,000-yard mark this year — something only three players have done in the last six years.
And, more importantly, they’re all candidates to reach New York as a Heisman Finalist with a chance to be remembered among the likes of former Heisman-winning running backs like Marcus Allen and Tony Dorsett.
Interestingly enough, they might even manage to sweep the finalist spots this season, an unthinkable feat in this quarterback era.
Among the top-10 quarterbacks in terms of passing yards this year, I was only able to recognize three names — TCU’s Trevone Boykin, Ole Miss’ Chad Kelly and Louisiana Tech and former Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel.
Besides what now looks like a fluke win over Alabama, Kelly hasn’t done anything worthy of being considered for an invite. And as much improvement as Driskel has shown from last season, playing in Conference USA doesn’t merit a trip to New York.
Boykin has the best chance to get invited, but even he has had a quiet season compared to the expectations many had for him before the start of the year.
And that leaves the door wide open for all of these running backs to cut, juke and bulldoze their way to that famous stiff-arming trophy.
If you enjoy that fact as much as I do, soak it in — in the modern era, we may not see another year like this again for a long time.
Follow Graham Hack on Twitter @graham_hack24
Dalvin Cook is one of a plethora of college football running backs enjoying breakout seasons.
