College Football Stat Leaders

2004 College Football Rushing Yards Per Game Leaders

Average rushing yards gained per game.

Seasons Covered

2004-2025

Current Leader

Rice (306.5)

Best Season

Georgia Southern 2014 (381.1)

Scope

All Conferences • 2004

Browse Metrics

Crawl sibling stat pages without leaving the shared leaderboard template.

Total Yards Per Game Passing Yards Per Game Rushing Yards Per Game Points Per Game Offensive PPA Defensive PPA Turnover Margin Havoc Rate

Season Selector

All-Time 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004

Conference Selector

All Conferences ACC Big 12 Big Ten Conference USA MAC Mountain West Pac-12 SEC Sun Belt

What The Numbers Say

Route-specific context pulled from the current leaderboard, winner trend, and historical baseline.

How Rushing Yards Per Game Reads

Rushing yards per game captures line-of-scrimmage control and down-to-down physicality, so teams that dominate this leaderboard usually create efficient early-down offense without needing to chase long passing volume. On this 2004 leaderboard, the visible range runs 306.5 to 256.8, with Rice setting the pace.

Conference Context

Big 12 Conference places 1 of the current top 5 teams, while American Athletic Conference owns the most recent yearly winner slot in the trend table.

Spread At The Top

The gap from No. 1 Rice to No. 5 Minnesota is 49.7, which shows how tightly packed the top of this leaderboard is.

Recent Trend And Baseline

The yearly winning mark slipped from 300.7 in 2024 to 286.1 in 2025, a swing of 14.6. Rice's current mark of 306.5 sits above the all-time average leader benchmark of 290.7 held by Navy.

Leaderboard

Top 25 rows for the current route scope.


1	Rice	Western Athletic Conference	2004	306.5
2	Texas	Big 12 Conference	2004	299.2
3	Navy	NCAA Division I-A independent schools	2004	289.5
4	Air Force	Mountain West Conference	2004	277.4
5	Minnesota	Big Ten Conference	2004	256.8
6	California	Pac-12 Conference	2004	256.8
7	West Virginia	Big East Conference	2004	252.8
8	Louisville	Conference USA	2004	250.4
9	Virginia	Atlantic Coast Conference	2004	242.8
10	Michigan State	Big Ten Conference	2004	238.5
11	Northern Illinois	Mid-American Conference	2004	238.2
12	Utah	Mountain West Conference	2004	237.4
13	Oklahoma State	Big 12 Conference	2004	237.0
14	Boise State	Western Athletic Conference	2004	229.8
15	Fresno State	Mountain West	2004	227.5
16	Oklahoma	Big 12 Conference	2004	208.4
17	Wake Forest	Atlantic Coast Conference	2004	206.1
18	Louisiana Tech	Western Athletic Conference	2004	200.3
19	LSU	Southeastern Conference	2004	193.8
20	Memphis	Conference USA	2004	193.5
21	South Florida	Conference USA	2004	187.8
22	Arkansas	Southeastern Conference	2004	187.4
23	North Texas	Sun Belt Conference	2004	186.4
24	Tennessee	Southeastern Conference	2004	186.0
25	Alabama	Southeastern Conference	2004	185.1

Trend Chart

Yearly winning values for the current filter scope.

Yearly Winners

Season	Team	Conference	Value
2025	Navy	American Athletic Conference	286.1
2024	Army	American Athletic Conference	300.7
2023	Liberty	Conference USA	293.3
2022	Air Force	Mountain West Conference	327.2
2021	Air Force	Mountain West Conference	328.2
2020	Air Force	Mountain West Conference	305.7
2019	Navy	American Athletic Conference	360.5
2018	Georgia Tech	Atlantic Coast Conference	325.0
2017	Army	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	362.3
2016	New Mexico	Mountain West Conference	350.0
2015	Georgia Southern	Sun Belt Conference	363.0
2014	Georgia Southern	Sun Belt Conference	381.1
2013	Auburn	Southeastern Conference	328.3
2012	Army	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	369.8
2011	Army	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	346.5
2010	Georgia Tech	Atlantic Coast Conference	323.3
2009	Nevada	Western Athletic Conference	344.9
2008	Navy	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	292.4
2007	Navy	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	348.8
2006	Navy	NCAA Division I FBS independent schools	327.0
2005	Navy	NCAA Division I-A independent schools	319.3
2004	Rice	Western Athletic Conference	306.5

Historical Leaderboard

Average across seasons for each team in the current filter scope.

Rank	Team	Seasons	Average	Best Season
1	Navy	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	290.7	2019 (360.5)
2	Air Force	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	287.7	2021 (328.2)
3	Army	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	259.1	2012 (369.8)
4	Jacksonville State	2025, 2024, 2023	245.8	2024 (253.2)
5	Georgia Tech	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	237.2	2014 (342.1)
6	Georgia Southern	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014	225.9	2014 (381.1)
7	Oregon	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	220.9	2012 (315.2)
8	App State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014	214.8	2015 (271.5)
9	Ohio State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	208.5	2013 (308.6)
10	Liberty	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018	207.0	2023 (293.3)
11	Wisconsin	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	204.5	2014 (320.1)
12	Northern Illinois	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	200.6	2013 (297.2)
13	Auburn	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	196.0	2013 (328.3)
14	New Mexico	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	195.8	2016 (350.0)
15	Oklahoma	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	192.9	2014 (261.2)
16	Louisiana	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	190.3	2008 (263.7)
17	Toledo	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	190.2	2014 (256.4)
18	James Madison	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022	189.4	2025 (243.7)
19	West Virginia	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	189.2	2006 (303.0)
20	Texas	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	187.2	2004 (299.2)
21	Alabama	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	185.3	2017 (250.6)
22	Nevada	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	185.2	2009 (344.9)
23	Tulsa	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	185.2	2008 (268.0)
24	TCU	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	184.6	2010 (247.4)
25	Boise State	2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004	182.9	2024 (241.2)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who leads college football in rushing yards per game in 2004?

Rice ranks first at 306.5 in 2004.

Why does the 2004 rushing yards per game season stand out?

The top of the 2004 leaderboard is separated by 49.7 from No. 1 to No. 5, which shows whether this season had a runaway leader or a tightly packed race.

How does the 2004 leader compare with the all-time average benchmark?

Rice's 2004 mark of 306.5 clears the all-time average leader benchmark of 290.7 held by Navy.