Welcome back cutter … For those who don’t follow college football all that closely, a couple of RBs made rather remarkable returns to action this past weekend. Start with star LSU RB Len Fournette, a potential top 5-10 pick at the 2017 draft who has been sidelined for almost a month with a nagging ankle injury that has actually slowed him since fall training camp. Fournette only carried 16 times in his return to the field on Saturday when the Tigers played Ole Miss, but he set a new LSU school record for rushing yards in a game and finished the night with a whopping 284 yards that included TD runs 59, 76 and 78 yards. Fournette now actually gets some extra time to rest the ankle as LSU has a bye week coming up before what could be a monumental meeting with #1 ranked Alabama on November 5th. Meanwhile, the story of Utah RB Joe Williams may be even more dramatic. The 5-10, 205-pound Williams, who had been considered to be a solid-enough second-tier candidate for the pro draft, had actually retired from football earlier in the season on the grounds that the game just wasn’t fun anymore. However, he got talked into returning when the Utes’ RB corps was decimated by injuries. In his first game back against UCLA this past weekend, Williams also set a new school record when he ran for 332 yards on 29 carries and 4 scores in the Utes 52-45 win over UCLA. Along the way, Williams scored 4 times including runs of 64, 55 and 43 yards. And for those that haven’t seen or heard of Williams they’ll get a chance to check him out in what is shaping up as the Pac-12 game of the year this coming Saturday when the 14th ranked Utes host 4th ranked Washington. It also puts Williams back on the radar of NFL scouts, although clearly pro teams will want to make sure his heart truly is back in the game.
