Is Mohamed Ibrahim the greatest RB in Gophers history?

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As far as individual stats, it's hard to argue with DT and Maroney. As far as Mo, it's pretty safe to say that (outside of Bruce Smith), he will be always be a major part of the conversation around one of the winningest eras in modern Gopher football history.
 



He has the skill set to make it a conversation. Let's see what he does this year. Hard to pass a judgement on the NMSU game.....but I saw multiple runs that most backs in the NCAA couldn't possibly manage.
 


There is only one choice for the Gopher's greatest running back (and maybe defensive tackle):

Bronko Nagurski became a standout playing both tackle on defense and fullback on offense at Minnesota from 1927 to 1929. In 1929, after posting 737 rushing yards, he was a consensus All-American at fullback, and despite playing fewer games at the position also made some All-American teams at tackle.

His greatest collegiate game was against Wisconsin in the season finale in 1928. Wearing a corset to protect cracked vertebrae, he recovered a Badger fumble deep in their territory, then ran the ball six straight times to score the go-ahead touchdown. Later in the same game, he intercepted a pass to seal the victory.

During his three varsity seasons at Minnesota, the Gophers went 18–4–2 (.792) and won the Big Ten Conference championship in 1927. Nagurski was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

The pre-eminent sportswriter of the day, Grantland Rice, listed him at the two positions in picking his 1929 All-America team. Rice later wrote, "Who would you pick to win a football game - 11 Jim Thorpes - 11 Glen Davises - 11 Red Granges - or 11 Bronko Nagurskis? The 11 Nagurskis would be a mop-up. It would be something close to murder and massacre. For the Bronk could star at any position on the field."
 
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Can't argue with DT, but there is no way I could put Maroney ahead of Mo. In fact, I'm not even sure Maroney was better than MBIII on those teams. If this year plays out the way we all hope, Mo will be the guy.
 



Go4Broke said:
There is only one choice for the Gopher's greatest running back (and maybe defensive tackle):

Bronko Nagurski became a standout playing both tackle on defense and fullback on offense at Minnesota from 1927 to 1929. In 1929, after posting 737 rushing yards, he was a consensus All-American at fullback, and despite playing fewer games at the position also made some All-American teams at tackle.

His greatest collegiate game was against Wisconsin in the season finale in 1928. Wearing a corset to protect cracked vertebrae, he recovered a Badger fumble deep in their territory, then ran the ball six straight times to score the go-ahead touchdown. Later in the same game, he intercepted a pass to seal the victory.[2]

During his three varsity seasons at Minnesota, the Gophers went 18–4–2 (.792) and won the Big Ten Conference championship in 1927. Nagurski was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

The pre-eminent sportswriter of the day, Grantland Rice, listed him at the two positions in picking his 1929 All-America team. Rice later wrote, "Who would you pick to win a football game - 11 Jim Thorpes - 11 Glen Davises - 11 Red Granges - or 11 Bronko Nagurskis? The 11 Nagurskis would be a mop-up. It would be something close to murder and massacre. For the Bronk could star at any position on the field."

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And his name became a HS mascot for Falls High School.
 

Axe said:
Can't argue with DT, but there is no way I could put Maroney ahead of Mo. In fact, I'm not even sure Maroney was better than MBIII on those teams. If this year plays out the way we all hope, Mo will be the guy.
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Maroney was a game-breaker and had more speed than Mo, but I don't recall his vision or his ability to break tackles being on par with Mo. I think Mo and MB3 had much more similar running styles.
 





Axe said:
Can't argue with DT, but there is no way I could put Maroney ahead of Mo. In fact, I'm not even sure Maroney was better than MBIII on those teams. If this year plays out the way we all hope, Mo will be the guy.
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Agree 100%. Maroney was the flashier back and had the ability to house it on any play, but MBIII was the better back of the two.

As for where Mo ranks all-time, a lot will come down to how this season plays out. That said he is easily one of the greatest people to play RB at the U. In this day and age you won't find a lot of guys that would be willing to take a backseat to other backs the way Mo did with Smith and Brooks. Mo has been nothing but a positive ambassador for the U and seems like a really good kid both on and off the field.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Agree 100%. Maroney was the flashier back and had the ability to house it on any play, but MBIII was the better back of the two.

As for where Mo ranks all-time, a lot will come down to how this season plays out. That said he is easily one of the greatest people to play RB at the U. In this day and age you won't find a lot of guys that would be willing to take a backseat to other backs the way Mo did with Smith and Brooks. Mo has been nothing but a positive ambassador for the U and seems like a really good kid both on and off the field.
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Eh, Maroney averaged nearly 7 YPC as a true freshman, and put up almost 700 yards more than MBIII in their careers. I think their NFL careers cloud people's judgment on that analysis.
 

All these references to Maroney gives me flashbacks to Kucek's botched punt. Maroney ran up and down the field that day for over 250 yards. And I can still see him stopped on third and short which led to the punt. I think he also recovered the crazy onside kick that we failed to field and was bounced down the field inside our ten. Ah, hell, might as well keep torturing myself. All Kucek would have had to do was to knock the ball out of the end zone for a safety but he tried to punt it. Walking out of the Dome with all those assholes in red whooping it up might have been the most painful moment ever in my Gopher fan life.
 

in evaluating players, I think you have to take a few things into account:

the era in which they played

the style of offense

were they the primary back, or did they work in a rotation?

the relative strength of the team - including the defense. teams that fall behind early typically wind up throwing the ball more, which results in fewer carries for the RB's.

my 2-cents: MN has had some really good RB's over the years. they all had their strong points.
I'm not sure it's possible - or even necessary - to say that one back is clearly the best.

the only way to really know would be if you had a time machine, and you could take Mo back and let him play a season behind the Eslinger/Setterstrom line, or let Thompson play a season behind the 2021 line.
 

Mulligan said:
All these references to Maroney gives me flashbacks to Kucek's botched punt. Maroney ran up and down the field that day for over 250 yards. And I can still see him stopped on third and short which led to the punt. I think he also recovered the crazy onside kick that we failed to field and was bounced down the field inside our ten. Ah, hell, might as well keep torturing myself. All Kucek would have had to do was to knock the ball out of the end zone for a safety but he tried to punt it. Walking out of the Dome with all those assholes in red whooping it up might have been the most painful moment ever in my Gopher fan life.
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Thanks for bringing that up. NOT!
 


Mulligan said:
All these references to Maroney gives me flashbacks to Kucek's botched punt. Maroney ran up and down the field that day for over 250 yards. And I can still see him stopped on third and short which led to the punt. I think he also recovered the crazy onside kick that we failed to field and was bounced down the field inside our ten. Ah, hell, might as well keep torturing myself. All Kucek would have had to do was to knock the ball out of the end zone for a safety but he tried to punt it. Walking out of the Dome with all those assholes in red whooping it up might have been the most painful moment ever in my Gopher fan life.
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That was one of the worst - if not THE worst - losses of my lifetime. Unfortunately I just watched it on YouTube and thought the same! "Just run into the end zone and fall down and take the f-ing safety!"

Oh well, it made beating them at home last year all that much the sweeter!
 

short ornery norwegian said:
in evaluating players, I think you have to take a few things into account:

the era in which they played

the style of offense

were they the primary back, or did they work in a rotation?

the relative strength of the team - including the defense. teams that fall behind early typically wind up throwing the ball more, which results in fewer carries for the RB's.

my 2-cents: MN has had some really good RB's over the years. they all had their strong points.
I'm not sure it's possible - or even necessary - to say that one back is clearly the best.

the only way to really know would be if you had a time machine, and you could take Mo back and let him play a season behind the Eslinger/Setterstrom line, or let Thompson play a season behind the 2021 line.
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this is very true. I just looked up some stats and see that Maroney has the highest yards per carry of anyone in the top 18 all time rushing leaders for Minnesota. He also only played 3 years, where Mo has played in portions of 5 (only one game last year obviously). The current line is a real good line, but that line that Maroney ran behind was outstanding. Tough to compare. So I'm personally going to stick with the eye test for my opinion, which tells me that Maroney was better.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Eh, Maroney averaged nearly 7 YPC as a true freshman, and put up almost 700 yards more than MBIII in their careers. I think their NFL careers cloud people's judgment on that analysis.
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Both were amazing players who had great college careers. A strong case can be made for each in terms of who was better and their careers will always be linked at the U.

To me, Maroney was the more explosive back and Barber was the better All-Around back. If I had to pick one of them to be my primary back at the peak of their college careers I would have picked Barber but you really couldn't go wrong with either.
 

Schnauzer said:
Daryl Thompson accomplished a lot and did not play with an offensive line that was as good as Maroney or Ibrahim.

He had a unique blend of power and speed. I hope Ibrahim breaks all his records but DT gets my vote.

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IF the Gophers had managed to beat tOSU last fall and Moe didn't get hurt, this could very well be a completely different conversation.

To be talked about in that stratosphere, to me you have to have had some games, even large portions of seasons, where you essentially put the entire team on your back and willed the team to win.

As great of a back as Moe is, that's just not been the case; a lot of games where one of the other backs would have come really close to reaching the same numbers. The OSU game last fall was really really close though; Moe was on his way to being THE reason the Gophers were going to win that game. That would have made the conversation a lot more interesting.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
IF the Gophers had managed to beat tOSU last fall and Moe didn't get hurt, this could very well be a completely different conversation.

To be talked about in that stratosphere, to me you have to have had some games, even large portions of seasons, where you essentially put the entire team on your back and willed the team to win.

As great of a back as Moe is, that's just not been the case; a lot of games where one of the other backs would have come really close to reaching the same numbers. The OSU game last fall was really really close though; Moe was on his way to being THE reason the Gophers were going to win that game. That would have made the conversation a lot more interesting.
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If they would have beat OSU and Mo stayed healthy for the year, he would have won the Heisman.
 


Schnauzer said:
Daryl Thompson accomplished a lot and did not play with an offensive line that was as good as Maroney or Ibrahim.

He had a unique blend of power and speed. I hope Ibrahim breaks all his records but DT gets my vote.

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Goosebumps every time watching this. Remember how loud it got when he turned the corner...lost my voice screaming.

Ray's call -
 

PMWinSTP said:
Goosebumps every time watching this. Remember how loud it got when he turned the corner...lost my voice screaming.

Ray's call -
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Oh Ray. Oh..who...who...who........whooooooo!
 

Bruce Smith, Pug Lund, Paul Giel, George Franck and Herb Joesting are all in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Maroney and Darrell were very good.

Marion Barber Jr was very good.

Marion Barber III was very good.

Chris Darkins was very good.

Rick Upchurch was very good.

Thomas Hamner was very good.

Cobb was very good. Smith and Brooks were very good.

Bob McNamara, Garry White, Gary Russell, Tellis Redmon, Amir Pinnix, Valdez Baylor.
 
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Ya Paul Giel was pretty awesome on bad teams. Paul Giel
David Cobb was pretty fun...most yards in a season David Cobb
Kent Kitzman with his Herculean efforts ....must hold the record for most rushing attempts in a game?
Maroney is probably the guy you felt most confident he could get you a touchdown any time he touched it.
 

Schnauzer said:
Daryl Thompson accomplished a lot and did not play with an offensive line that was as good as Maroney or Ibrahim.

He had a unique blend of power and speed. I hope Ibrahim breaks all his records but DT gets my vote.

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Love Mo but DT is special. If DT played behind the OLs Mo did he’d have set untouchable records. Size, vision and breakaway speed.
 
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