Notre Dame football: Top 5 running backs in school history
In the mid to late 1970s, Bob Davie was attempting to take over for the legendary Lou Holtz. During this time period, Autry Denson dominated opponents and helped Davie’s efforts for a smooth transition.
When Denson’s time with Notre Dame football came to an end, he left as the program’s all-time leader in rushing yards with 4,318. He also left Notre Dame second in rushing touchdowns for a career, with 43. Over the past two decades, no one has come close to touching either of those marks.
Some records get put up all in one season when a player makes a remarkable jump forward. Joe Burrow, of LSU, is a good example of this. Denson was not one of those players, though. Instead, he put up multiple strong seasons in a row. Denson’s 1996 season is 10th all-time for rushing yards in a season, with 1,179. Meanwhile, his 1997 season is 6th all-time, with 1,268 yards. In Denson’s 1997 and 1998 season’s he finished 10th and 6th on the single-season rushing touchdowns list, with 12 and 15 respectively.
Autry Denson was the MVP of the Gator Bowl in 1999. He would go on to be Notre Dame’s running back coach from 2015-18. He left to be the head coach at Charleston Southern.
Where Denson has all the records, he lacks accolades. Denson was never an All-American and hasn’t gotten much talk about receiving on honor, like the College Football Hall of Fame. The Doak Walker Award never came calling, often going to Ricky Williams instead.
His lack of success with awards could be ignored if his Notre Dame football teams had more success on the field. Unfortunately, his career started at the end of Lou Holtz’s tenure. These were good, not great seasons. 9-3, 8-3 records came to the Irish in 1995 and 1996. That’s a good stretch of Brian Kelly-esque results. In Bob Davie’s first two seasons, Notre Dame finished 7-6 and 9-3 again.
Simply put, despite how good Denson was, he was never able to carry the load to a major bowl win. He never carried the load to a 10 win season. Give Autry Denson credit for his rushing records, but recognize that his resume is incomplete.