Benjamin Snell Jr. (born February 26, 1998) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played college football at

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. Snell is the great-nephew of former New York Jets running back

Matt Snell Matthews Snell (born August 18, 1941) is a retired professional football player who played for the New York Jets. He was Jets' owner Sonny Werblin's first coup, prior to his 1965 acquisition of Joe Namath. A powerful fullback out of Ohio Stat ...

His father, Benjamin Snell, Sr. is an alumnus of

Ohio Northern University Ohio Northern University (Ohio Northern or ONU) is a private United Methodist Church–affiliated university in Ada, Ohio. Founded by Henry Solomon Lehr in 1871, ONU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It offers over 60 programs to ...

, played in the NFL Europe and the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

Early years

Snell Jr. attended

Westerville Central High School Westerville Central High School is a public high school located in Westerville, Ohio, northeast of Columbus. It is the newest of three high schools in the Westerville City School District. It opened in August 2003. History Westerville expe ...

. During his time there, he won two Ohio Capital Conference titles. During his junior season, Snell Jr. rushed for 2,077 yards while scoring 26 touchdowns on the ground, he also had two receiving touchdowns that year. As a senior, he totaled 1,826 rushing yards, 264 receiving yards and 29 touchdowns. Snell Jr. was rated as a three-star recruit.The Washington Post
/ref> He chose

over

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Boston College, Toledo and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

College career

Freshman

As a freshman in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, Snell rushed for 1,091 rushing yards, breaking the Kentucky freshman rushing record which was held by Moe Williams. Snell Jr. managed to score 13 rushing touchdowns. During his freshman season, Snell Jr set six UK freshman records, including most rushing touchdowns in a game (4), most rushing yards by a freshman (1,091), most rushing touchdowns by a freshman (13), most total touchdowns by a freshman (13), most 100-yard rushing games (5) and most rushing yards by a freshman in a single game (192). At the end of his freshman season Snell Jr, was selected as a True Freshman All-American by ESPN and 247Sports, Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) Freshman All-American, Freshman All-SEC and a Second-team All-SEC pick by

Pro Football Focus Pro Football Focus (also written as ProFootballFocus, and often referred to by its initials, PFF) is a sports analytics company that focuses on thorough analysis of the National Football League (NFL) and NCAA Division-I football in the United Sta ...

Sophomore

As a sophomore in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, Snell rushed for 1,333 rushing yards and scored 19 rushing touchdowns. Snell Jr. became the first Kentucky player with 10 or more career 100-yard rushing games prior to his junior season. He became the only SEC player since 2000 to have at least 116 rushing yards and at least three rushing touchdowns in three consecutive games. Snell Jr. became the ninth player in school history to reach 2,000 rushing yards in his career and the 19th player in SEC history to reach 2,000 career rushing yards prior to his junior season. He became the only player in school history to have back-to-back 1,000 rushing yard seasons. Snell Jr. was selected as a preseason Associated Press All-SEC First-team and All-SEC Second-team. In addition, Snell Jr. was put on the Doak Walker Award Watch List and the Maxwell Award Watch List.

Junior

As a junior in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

, Snell rushed for 1,449 rushing yards and scored 16 rushing touchdowns. Snell Jr. became one of four running backs in SEC history to have three consecutive 1,000 rushing yard seasons, the others being Herschel Walker,

Darren McFadden Darren McFadden (born August 27, 1987) is a former American football running back. He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round with the fourth overall pick of the 2008 NFL Dra ...

, and Alex Collins. Snell Jr. would also become the school's career rushing yards leader after scoring on a 12 yard touchdown run against the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...

in the

2019 Citrus Bowl The 2019 Citrus Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played on January 1, 2019. It was the 73rd edition of what is now the Citrus Bowl, and was one of the 2018–19 bowl games concluding the 2018 FBS football season. Sponsored by VR ...

. This 43 year old record, previously held by

Sonny Collins Alfred Eugene "Sonny" Collins (born January 17, 1953) is a former American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the second round of the 1976 NFL draft. He played coll ...

, was broken in just three seasons by Snell. Snell was voted First-team All-SEC by SEC Coaches. He would announce on December 14, 2018 that he would forgo his senior season and enter the 2019 NFL Draft.

Career Statistics

Professional career

Snell was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round with the 122nd overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. In Week 13 against the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

, Snell rushed 16 times for 63 yards and his first career rushing touchdown in the 20–13 win. In Week 17 against the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

, Snell rushed 18 times for 91 yards and a touchdown during the 28–10 loss. As a rookie, Snell finished with 108 carries for 426 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. Snell's first big breakthrough came on ''Monday Night Football'' against the New York Giants in Week 1 of the 2020 season after starter James Conner suffered an injury. He finished with 19 carries for 113 rushing yards as the Steelers won 26–16. In Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals on ''Monday Night Football'', Snell recorded 107 yards from scrimmage and a rushing touchdown during the 27–17 loss.

NFL career statistics

References

External links

Pittsburgh Steelers bioKentucky Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snell, Benny 1998 births Living people People from Westerville, Ohio Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio American football running backs Kentucky Wildcats football players Pittsburgh Steelers players