Stanford running back Bryce Love will forgo the 2018 NFL draft and plans to return to Palo Alto for his senior season. Early Tuesday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle confirmed the news via a text message from Love’s father. Love would have likely been a high draft pick, but the likes of Saquon Barkley, Derrius Guice, Ronald Jones II, Sony Michel, and Nick Chubb already in this year’s class makes it a deep one for running backs.
Bryce Love is coming back to Stanford for 2018, and that’s exciting for college football
The Heisman runner-up will be back for 2018.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Love returning means we’ll get yet another season of highlight-worthy plays.
Love is a highlight machine, but the problem was that the Cardinal playing on the West Coast meant not many national viewers were able to appreciate what he did. Here are just a few of his late-night highlights that most people probably missed last season:
Week 6: a 10:15 p.m. ET kickoff at Utah
- A 39-yard run in the second quarter
- A 68-yard TD in the fourth
Week 7: an 11:09 p.m. ET kickoff vs. Oregon
- A 34-yard run in the first quarter
- A 67-yard TD, also in the first
Week 9: a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff vs. Washington
- A 21-yard run
- A 35-yard run
I don’t know about you all, but I sure am excited to see more plays like these.
With Love able to be fully healthy for an entire season, the sky’s the limit.
He rushed for 2,118 yards and 19 touchdowns last season, despite dealing with an ankle injury, and his numbers even with the injury are quite impressive:
Love went out in the second half against Oregon (after already gaining 147 yards). He then missed the next week’s game against Oregon State game with an ankle injury that hampered him for the rest of the season. In some games he would be spelled by a backup and wasn’t at his most effective. Love averaged 5.7 per carry in the season’s final five games. It’s a far cry from his best, but when factoring in the injury, it’s understandable.
Through seven games, Love was on pace for 2,377 yards in a 12-game season, which would’ve been the fifth-most ever. If Love could have kept up that 198-yard average and stayed healthy through a 14-game season, he would have finished the year with 2,773 yards.
Love finished second in this year’s Heisman voting behind Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield, which continued a Stanford tradition of being a runner-up for the award. Hopefully this time around, perhaps with a few earlier kickoffs for Love’s team, the nation will truly appreciate Love for what an incredibly talented back he is.
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