Dropped in on this after a while off. Alan Ameche and Billy Marek deserve a little Badger love. Was Marek good enough to make the top 10? Who am I to say. If so, probably around 9 or 10. But Ameche was.
My top 10:
1) Taylor
2) Gordon
3) Dayne
4) Ameche
5) Moss
6) Ball
7) Fletcher
8) White
9) Davis
10) Clay
I ding Calhoun for his duration. I have White higher than Clay. White shared the backfield with Ball and Gordon (and Clay), and was good enough to keep finding the field quite a bit (and--as a freshman--had over 1000 yards Clay's junior/last year, including significantly more yards per carry on fewer, but not dramatically fewer carries). Moss higher than Ball should be controversial, particularly in that he, too was sharing the backfield with another RB on the list. I think Ball/Gordon/White played for better offensive teams than Moss/Fletcher. I suppose I should hold the whole cocaine thing against Moss since it happened in college, but man, that guy could play (of course, all the ones on this list could). That I was a student watching Moss live probably biases me in his direction.
Dayne is a funny one. If he had the same career today, I don't think he gets the Heisman. My impression (terribly uninformed and flawed, though it is) is that the voters in 1999 cared more about the tradition/history of the award, and thus struggled with the idea of not giving it to a player who set those running records over the course of a four-year career--and they valued running backs more. From 1980 to 1999, nine running backs won the award. In the 20 years since, only two.
Great college running back, no doubt. But not better than Taylor and Gordon.
