Danny Woodhead | #1 | WR/RB
Height: 5-9 Weight: 200 Age: 26
In 2004, Woodhead attended Chadron State in Chadron, Nebraska. He rushed for 1,840 rushing yards in his true freshman year. But those weren’t freshman-like stats; Those were more like senior season stats.
In Woodhead’s sophomore year, he had 278 carries for 1,769 yards including a 6.4 yards per carry average. He also pounded out 21 touchdowns. While the rushing game was good, he pounded in some expectational stats in receiving: 30 catches for 367 yards including 12.2 yards per reception average.
Woodhead had a brilliant season. Some have even said it was Hall of Fame caliber. Through twelve games he had 2,740 rushing yards, passing the record set by Kavin Gaillaird for most single-season division rushing yards. At the end of the seson Woodhead had amassed 2,756 yards. He led his team to the NCAA Division II playoffs, too, but they lost to Northwest Missouri State.
39 games into Woodhead’s career he had accounted for 606 points (that meant he averaged an incredible 15.5 points per game by himself), the highest ever in Division II. Only Dan Pugh of Mount Union College (in Ohio), who had 248 points in 2002, and Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State, who had 234 in 1988, had more points in a season than Woodhead in 2006.
But in 2007, Abilene Christian University’s Bernard Scott broke Woodhead’s record by scoring 39 touchdowns (234 points).
Woodhead got to show his stuff in front of the Atlanta Falcons’ scouts. They wanted to see his 40 yard dash time, and he raced to an impressive 4.41 seconds. That’s pretty fast. He also wont the 55-meter dash at the RMAC Indoor Meet in 2006 as well.
At the start of his senior year Woodhead already had 7,441 rushing yards in his career, an average of 190.8 rushing yards per game. He rushed for 200 or more yards in 19 of his 39 games and scored at least one touchdown in 37 consecutive games. Both of those are NCAA all-division records.
After a 208-yard performance against Western New Mexico that year, he became college football’s all-time leading rusher (though you probably never heard about it). He broke former Grove City College (PA) fullback R.J. Bowers record (Bowers played from 1997-2000) for the all-time rushing record. Woodhead was also the sixth player in history to rush for over 1,000 yards in all four of his seasons.
Woodhead ended his career with 9,259 all purpose yards, second all-time behind former Villanova and now Philadelphia Eagles’ runnning back, Brian Westbrook, who played for Villanova from 1997-2000 with his 9,512 all purpose yards.
Woodhead also tied Germaine Race’s (Pittsburg State, 2003-2006) record for Division II career scoring with 654 points on 109 touchdowns. Race is also the all-time leader in two-point conversions with 658 points. Woodhead is also the second player in college football history to rush for over 100 touchdowns.
Barry Sanders is the only player to have more all-purpose yards in a season than the 3,159 all purpose yards Woodhead had gained in 2006. Sanders had 3,250 in 1988, where he won the Heisman Trophy in his junior season. Woodhead was ranked tenth all-time in all purpose Division II yards with 7,349 yards just after his junior season. The Division II leader is Brian Shay of Emporia State as he had 9,301 yards, including 1,207 on kick returns from 1995-1998.
Woodhead was also a candidate for the Harlon Hill Trophy from 2004-2007. He won the trophy in 2006 and 2007. After his career, some people complained that Woodhead could have played for the University of Nebraska. Woodhead later said in an interview that Nebraska didn’t show much interest in him while Chadron State showed 100 percent of it.
At Chadron State he majored in Math education.
Amazingly, Woodhead did not receive an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine, so he had to use his Pro Day to show what he’s got. According to a report at NFLDraftWatch.net, Woodhead ran the 40-yard-dash at times between 4.33-to-4.38 in three tries. That would have been the fastest among all running backs attending the Combine for the 2008 NFL Draft. He posted the best pro-agility time (4.03 seconds), second best vertical jump (38½ inches), and the best 60-yard shuttle time (11.2 seconds).
