Melvin Gordon

He became the second all-time single-season rusher in FBS history with 2,587 yards, falling 41 yards shy of Barry Sanders record of 2,628 yards set in 1988.

Gordon was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin and attended Mary D. Bradford High School, where he was a two-sport star for the Red Devils in both football and track.

In football, he tallied 1,098 yards and 11 touchdowns on 99 carries, and had five receiving touchdowns, and was an honorable mention All-state and All-region by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) as a junior.

He was a first-team All-state selection by the Associated Press and the WFCA as a senior, after he rushed for 2,009 yards with 38 touchdowns.

He was the Wisconsin Gatorade Football Player of the Year.

Melvin Gordon III (born April 13, 1993) is an American football running back who is a free agent.

At the 2011 Racine Invitational event, he ran the 55-meter dash in a PR 6.39 seconds on his way to a first-place finish.

He earned a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash at the 2011 SEC Outdoor Conference, recording a career-best time of 10.95 seconds.

At the 2011 WIAA Track & Field State Championships, he took silver in the long jump event after posting a career-best leap of 7.20 meters (23 ft 7 in).

Regarded as a four-star recruit by the Rivals.com recruiting service, Gordon was ranked the No. 24 running back in the nation.

He was ranked the top player in Wisconsin by ESPN.com.

He chose Wisconsin over scholarship offers from Iowa, Louisville, and Michigan.

Gordon originally committed to the University of Iowa but decommitted and chose the University of Wisconsin–Madison instead.

Gordon attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he played for the Wisconsin Badgers football team from 2011 through 2014 under head coaches Bret Bielema, Barry Alvarez, and Gary Andersen.

As a freshman in 2011, Gordon played in three games rushing 20 times for 98 yards with a touchdown.

He rushed for his first career collegiate touchdown in the 59–10 victory over South Dakota on September 24.

He was given a medical redshirt after suffering a groin injury.

In 2012, Gordon was the third string running back behind Montee Ball and James White.

In the Badgers' third game against UTEP, he had eight carries for 112 rushing yards and a touchdown for his first collegiate game going over the century mark.

He set a career-high record of 216 yards on nine carries averaging 24 yards per carry in the 2012 Big Ten Football Championship Game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers where the unranked Badgers defeated the #12 Cornhuskers by a score of 70–31.

Over the course of the 2012 season, Gordon rushed 62 times for 621 yards and three touchdowns.

James White and Gordon received a majority of the carries and the backfield and both were productive.

To start the season, Gordon had 13 carries for 144 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown against Massachusetts.

In the following game, against Tennessee Tech, on only nine carries, he had 140 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown for a 15.6 yards per carry average.

In the following game, the Badgers had their first setback of the season on the road against Arizona State.

Gordon had a season-high in yardage with 193 yards on 15 carries for two rushing touchdowns.

Gordon found the endzone three times to go along with 147 yards on 16 carries in the following game against Purdue.

After a setback to Ohio State in the following game, Gordon and Badgers reeled off a six-game winning streak.

To start the winning streak, Gordon had 22 carries for 172 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown against Northwestern.

He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, earning unanimous All-American honors and winning the Doak Walker Award as the top college running back in 2013.

During the 2013 Rose Bowl, he had nine carries for 51 yards against #6 Stanford but ultimately the unranked Badgers lost by a score of 20–14.

One week later, against Illinois, he found the endzone three times for the second time in the 2013 season.

In the victory, he tallied 142 rushing yards on 17 carries to go along with the touchdowns.

On November 14, Gordon was named one of the ten semifinalists for the 2013 Doak Walker Award.

Two days later, against Indiana, he had 13 carries for 146 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown.

In December 2013, Gordon announced after much speculation that he would be returning to Wisconsin for his junior season.

Gordon briefly held the NCAA Division I FBS single-game rushing yards record with 408 yards, set playing in three quarters against Nebraska in November 2014, until it was broken the following week.

He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft with the 15th overall pick.

Gordon's played on the same team as cornerback Trae Waynes, who was drafted four spots ahead of Gordon in the 2015 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

As an outstanding track & field athlete, Gordon was one of the state's top performers in the long jump.