Montee Ball

He trails Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders, who scored 39 touchdowns in 1988.

Montee Ball Jr. (born December 5, 1990) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL).

He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, recognized twice as the best running back in the Big Ten Conference and earning consensus first-team All-American honors.

Ball enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, where he played for the Wisconsin Badgers football team from 2009 to 2012.

As a freshman, Ball played in 9 of 13 games and finished second on the team in rushing yards (391), rushing touchdowns (4), and rushing attempts (98).

Ball played in 12 games, including starts in the final four games.

He began the 2010 season as the backup running back to John Clay, the 2009 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

Because Clay had offseason ankle surgery and later an MCL injury, Ball gained a prominent role in the Badgers' offense, along with freshman back James White.

Ball led the team in rushing touchdowns, ranked second in rushing attempts and scoring, third in rushing yards and all purpose yards and fourth in total offense.

His 18 rushing touchdowns tied for fourth-most in a single season, his 6.11 yards per carry is sixth-best in one season at Wisconsin, and his 108 points tied for sixth-most in one season at Wisconsin.

At the end of the season, Ball was named consensus honorable mention All-Big Ten.

Ball played and started in all 14 games.

In the season opener, he had 63 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, two receptions, 67 receiving yards, and a receiving touchdown against UNLV.

On October 15, 2011, he was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass and scoring three rushing touchdowns with 142 yards rushing, including a career long 54-yard rush, on 14 carries and 46 yards receiving on one catch against Indiana.

On November 5, 2011, Ball was named Big Ten Player of the Week after rushing for a career-high 223 yards against the Purdue Boilermakers.

During that game, Ball scored four touchdowns (three rushing and one receiving) which gave him 146 total points scored on the season.

This broke Brian Calhoun's school record for total points in a single season of 144.

On November 12, 2011, Ball broke the single season Big Ten Conference record for touchdowns by rushing for two and receiving one against the Minnesota.

Ball had 27 touchdowns (23 rushing and 4 receiving) at the end of that game.

On November 19, 2011, against Illinois, Ball ran for a career-high 224 yards and two touchdowns on a career-high 38 carries.

He also added a receiving touchdown and became the fifth player in NCAA Division I FBS history to score 30 touchdowns in a single season.

On November 26, 2011, Ball scored four touchdowns against Penn State, and four more in the Big Ten Championship game one week later, giving Ball 38 touchdowns on the season, which was second all-time in FBS.

Ball was one of three finalists for the 2011 Doak Walker Award joining Oregon's LaMichael James and Alabama's Trent Richardson.

The award was given to Alabama's Trent Richardson.

Ball was named First-team All-Big Ten, by both the coaches and media, at the conclusion of the 2011 regular season.

He was also the winner of two other Big Ten awards, the Graham-George Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year award (which was renamed in 2011 after of Northwestern's Otto Graham and Ohio State's Eddie George) and the Ameche-Dayne Big Ten Running Back of the Year award, which was also renamed in 2011 after Wisconsin's Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne.

He was selected by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

He was also a member of the New England Patriots.

Until November 14, 2015, Ball held the NCAA Division I-FBS record for most career rushing touchdowns with 77 and the NCAA Division I FBS-record for most career total touchdowns with 83.

Ball was born in McPherson, Kansas.

His family later moved to Wentzville, Missouri, where Ball attended Timberland High School and played high school football for the Timberland Wolves.

He was ranked as the number 33 running back in the nation and fourth-best player in Missouri by Rivals.com.

He was named first-team all-state, all-metro, all-district and all-conference as a senior.

As a senior, Ball carried the ball 213 times for 2,187 yards and 41 touchdowns.

As a junior, Ball was named player of the year (St. Louis American), first-team all-state, all-metro, all-district and all-conference after putting up 358 carries for 3,077 yards and 32 touchdowns, and was recognized in Sports Illustrated magazine's "Faces in the Crowd" section.

As a sophomore, Ball was named first-team all-district and all-conference after carrying the ball 297 times for 1,845 yards and 15 touchdowns.

As a freshman, Ball had 1,113 yards on 127 carries with 19 touchdowns.

Ball was a team captain and team MVP as a sophomore, junior and senior.

He holds the Wentzville school district rushing records with career totals of 995 carries, 8,222 yards, 107 touchdowns, and an average of 8.26 yards per carry.

Ball was also named to the all-academic list three times and was a two-time letterwinner in basketball.