Remember how everyone was saying this would be The Year of the QB? Well, one month in, we've found out we were all wrong. It's actually The Year of the RB.

More specifically, it's become the year of the battering ram. So forget the Golden Boy types of Rex and Dorsey and Casey and Eli and focus on the roughnecks -- Derrick Nix, Maurice Clarett, Cecil Sapp, Greg Jones and Willis McGahee. Led by this fivesome of 230-plus pound guys with quick feet and teeth-rattling style between the tackles, the stampede is on.

	The Buckeyes super Frosh has everyone turning their heads.

The most remarkable thing is, all five were nowhere near the radar. Heck, Nix hadn't played in almost two seasons for Southern Miss, while Sapp missed 2001 at Colorado State and McGahee only played sparingly in Miami's national title run last year. Jones was more of a role player last fall for FSU. Clarett? The new Heisman darling was in high school! But then they started piling up the 150- and 200-yard performances -- in big games no less. Now everyone is scrambling to rethink their Heisman lists.

One of the biggest reasons for the change in the offensive landscape isn't just the freakish talent of these guys, but also the defense that virtually everyone is playing these days. The trendy defense in football is cover-2. "Miami won the national title using cover-2 as its base defense and everybody's following suit," says Southern Miss OC Chris Klenakis. "We're seeing so much [more] of it than in the past and the best way to attack it is running hard inside the tackles and angle-blocking off the tackles."

Klenakis has relied upon his powerhouse, Nix, aka the Baby Bull, to be an antidote. Nix, who sat out because of kidney problems the past two seasons and saw his weight balloon to 275, is finally healthy again. And now he is punishing defenses. He's second in the nation with 158 rushing yards per game -- despite not having had to play an entire game yet this season. "Derrick has come back much faster this year," says Klenakis. "He really sets up our play-action game too." The Baby Bull gets a big test this weekend against Alabama, when USM tries to go 4-0 for the first time since 1981.

Mark Snyder, Ohio State's linebackers coach, says a bunch of reasons have conspired to create the ideal climate for the running back resurgence. "It is a combination of taking advantage of the coverages, keeping the defense off the field so they are fresh and taking advantage of inclement weather that happens in the north," says Snyder. "Everything is cyclical and the more pass teams there are, the softer their defense gets in spring and preseason and [they] really forget how to stop a good running team, and it sure helps if they are playing cover-2."

Says CSU coach Sonny Lubick, a man widely regarded as one of the game's top defensive minds, "We're all looking for that big physical 6-foot-1, 225-pound back, but they are really hard to find." His star Sapp, he says, has yet to be brought down by the first tackler to hit him. Sapp, like the others, also has surprisingly soft hands.

This quintet isn't so much cut from the same cloth as they are sculpted from the same piece of steel. Jones, at 248, is the biggest. McGahee, with his 4.28 speed, is the fastest. Clarett is probably the most versatile. Nix probably has the best vision and Sapp probably is the most physical. Of course, it's unfair to talk about top running backs and not include Va. Tech's tandem of Kevin Jones and Lee Suggs, Oregon's Onterrio Smith or Texas' Cedric Benson, but coming into the season we all knew they were the real deal. These other guys have literally come from nowhere to take over.

And it's not too crazy to think that one of them will be your next Heisman winner.

Random Notes