Benny Snell is Kentucky’s former three-star recruit turned Heisman candidate running back. In 2018, he’s been a key fixture on a team that’s taken college football by storm.
Meet Benny Snell, the extremely fun running back fueling Kentucky’s rise
Snell has looked like a star for a while. Now that Kentucky’s good, he’s getting broader recognition.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Snell isn’t new for many college football fans, but with Kentucky actually winning games nowadays, he and his team have found a national spotlight they’re not used to. He’s having the best season of his career and putting up numbers in his team’s biggest games.
1. Snell is really good, and he’s leading Kentucky’s physical and explosive run game.
The Wildcats’ ground game is a blast to watch: offensive linemen blow open holes, and Snell and quarterback Terry Wilson hit them with electricity.
Kentucky has been doing multiple things well this season, but Snell and the run game has been their identity on offense. In three of the first four games, Snell had at least 125 yards on the ground. Two came in huge games against Florida (175), and Mississippi State (165). Snell has been carving up SEC defenses this season even more than usual.
He’s joining some exclusive company with how quickly he’s been scoring touchdowns:
2. It’s not just the football. He’s used perfect Photoshops to follow up big wins.
Kentucky really jumped onto the scene when it beat Florida, after taking 31 consecutive losses that dated back to 1986.
Snell went off in that game for 175 rushing yards, and tweeted the following after the win:
Two weeks later, the Wildcats were taking on No. 14 Mississippi State, and ran through them as well in a 28-7 win, in which all Kentucky touchdowns came from Snell, who had 165 yards.
This photoshop was even better, because it featured Snell in game action, while carrying an adorable bulldog:
With games against Texas A&M, Missouri, Georgia, and Tennessee still on the schedule, there’s plenty of room for more creativity if Kentucky were to win those games.
3. He has the best mouthpiece in human history.
Football uniforms have evolved over the years. From helmet adjustments, to the fit of jerseys, to vibrant cleats, players have found ways to change the culture of the game.
And then there’s Benny Snell, who has a spinner in his mouthpiece that moves when he breathes:
That’s next-level.
4. If you want to get in on the ground floor with Snell, it’s not too late. He still has at least another season (maybe two) of lighting up college, and then he should be an NFL back.
Snell might have ripped off the Power 5’s quietest 19-touchdown, 1,300-yard season ever in 2017. The former middling three-star recruit was hidden on one of the least-watched teams in the sport’s most-watched conference. Even though he’d been a freshman All-American the year before that, his playing for Kentucky limited how much he got talked about.
The secret is out now. Snell is really good, and he’s playing for a great team. But if you bring him up to your casual college football fan friends before, say, the end of October, there’s a decent chance you’ll get credit for “discovering” him from your friend group. The NFL draft world should have an awakening to Snell in the spring of 2019, when he’s eligible there.
5. Let’s live in the moment, though. For now, a quality campaign is underway for his Heisman candidacy.
Snell has been good. He just didn’t get the recognition because of Kentucky’s lack of success. But because the Cats have been on a roll in 2018, they’ve become a sport to be reckoned with at an institution defined by its basketball success.
With that, the school decided to create a 45-second video, in which Snell explains that he only plays for himself, and Kentucky:
He says in the video that he doesn’t care if people don’t buy into the hype and that he doesn’t play for recognition. But you probably should buy into the Benny Snell hype.
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