With James Sims and Ja'Terian Douglas out of the way, let's take a look at the top two running backs of the Class of 2010 with the help of Greg Riddle of The Dallas Morning News and Barton Simmons of Rivals.com.
2. Ben Malena, Cedar Hill HS - Unlike those behind him, Malena was on a great team last season that played 14 games and was two wins away from the state championship. Malena was a do-it-all back for the Longhorns, leading his team to a 12-2 record. The 5 foot 10, 201-pound back was unstoppable on the ground, accumulating 2,202 yards and 35 touchdowns and caught 23 balls for 307 yards and two more scores. Rightfully so, Malena has a huge list of interested schools, and has offers from half of them. The incoming senior already has scholarship offers from Baylor, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Tulsa. He has interest from Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and TCU. He can bench 275 pounds and puts up 500 on the squat to go with a 4.5 40-yard dash and a 4.26-second shuttle.
1. Stephen Hopkins, Flower Mound Marcus HS - Hopkins is the true definition of a workhorse and already has a good amount of mileage on his bulky 6-foot, 220-pound frame. The incoming senior has been making a name for himself since his sophomore year, when he rushed for 1,663 yards and 16 touchdowns on 343 carries for an average of 4.8 yards per carry. Then there was last season, when he saw his workload decrease a bit but saw his average yards per carry go up by nearly two full yards a pop. He carried the ball 273 times for 1,689 yards and 22 touchdowns for an average of 6.2 yards. The Marauders' running back has offers from Kansas, Stanford, Texas A&M and SMU. He has interest from Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas Tech and TCU.
Adam Boedeker is a sports writer/blogger for the Denton Record-Chronicle. He makes a pretty mean apple dump cake.
