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Jimbo Fisher compares Benny Snell to all-time NFL leading rusher Emmitt Smith
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No Southeastern Conference team is playing the run better than Texas A&M five weeks into the season. The Aggies are allowing only 85 rushing yards per game despite playing two top-five opponents on the season.
On the flip side, no SEC team is running the ball better than Kentucky. The Wildcats are averaging just over 259 yards on the ground on their way to a perfect 5-0 record, led by Heisman Trophy candidate Benny Snell Jr., who has 664 yards and eight touchdowns after only five games.
Among those impressed with the junior’s performance this season is Jimbo Fisher. In fact, the Texas A&M coach is so enamored by Kentucky’s No. 1 running back; he compared Snell to the NFL’s all-time leading rusher during his Monday media availability.
Here’s what Fisher had to say when asked how impressed he is with A&M’s run defense this season and how Mike Elko’s unit will be put to the test this coming weekend in facing off against Snell and Kentucky.
“I think we are playing the run really well and that’s one of the things in that game we did an excellent job of… and we are going to have to. We are going to get challenged. Like I said before, when there’s no yards there, and we look down and say, “Boy, we got him — it’s 2nd and 5.’ I’ve never seen a guy that can wiggle… for a lack of a better term.”
Fisher then stopped himself and came up with one player that he has seen that type of attribute from in all his days of studying and watching football.
“(Snell) reminds me of the way Emmitt (Smith) used to run. Emmitt had all the big plays and all that, but Emmitt made yards on everything he did,” Fisher commented. “You know what I’m saying? Back in the day when you really watched him, and you think, “Well, they got him,” at the end of the day, he’d have 25 carries for about 160. Where did that come from? It’s just constantly moving the chains. He’s strong and powerful and all of a sudden, he breaks out. He’s very patient. He finds space in places where there shouldn’t be. It’s going to be a huge challenge.”
That’s huge praise from Fisher considering Smith went on to rack up 18,335 rushing yards at the game’s highest level, still the best of all-time in the NFL, but one that makes some sense when you begin to look at what Snell is doing in Lexington. By the end of his third season, Snell will likely hold every Kentucky rushing record, and he currently stands only nine scores away from passing Herschel Walker on the all-time SEC rushing touchdown record by a three-year player.
When you think of it like that, it’s no wonder Snell is being compared to some of the best backs in the history of the game — he’s been performing like one for two and a half seasons now.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
