Athlon Sports' position-by-position look that the future stars of college football.
Athlon releases its position-by-position recruiting rankings now that the schools have finalized the personal information and positions.
Here are all the nationally rated running back prospects for 2011. A "nationally rated" prospects is anyone who received a vote in the Athlon Consensus 100. There were 269 nationally rated recruits in 2011. The AC100 ranking is where each prospect ranked nationally, regardless of position.
Position Ranks: QB | RB | WR | TE | OL | DL | LB | DB| ATH
Here are the top in-coming linebackers for 2011:
| Rank | Player | Ht | Wt | Hometown | AC100 | School |
| 1. | Tony Steward | 6'2" | 225 | St. Augustine, FL | 15 | Clemson |
| 2. | Stephone Anthony | 6'3" | 220 | Wadesboro, NC | 16 | Clemson |
| 3. | Curtis Grant | 6'3" | 225 | Richmond, VA | 18 | Ohio State |
| 4. | Steve Edmond | 6'3" | 235 | Daingerfield, TX | 23 | Texas |
| 5. | Ishaq Williams | 6'5" | 242 | Brooklyn, NY | 27 | Notre Dame |
| 6. | Trey DePriest | 6'2" | 232 | Springfield, OH | 32 | Alabama |
| 7. | Lawrence Thomas | 6'4" | 245 | Detroit, MI | 34 | Michigan State |
| 8. | Xzavier Dickson | 6'3" | 240 | Griffin, GA | 63 | Alabama |
| 9. | James Vaughter | 6'2" | 235 | Stone Mountain, GA | 69 | Stanford |
| 10. | C.J. Johnson | 6'2" | 235 | Philadelphia, MS | 92 | Ole Miss |
| 11. | Travis Hughes | 6'2" | 225 | Virginia Beach, VA | 102 | North Carolina |
| 12. | Ryan Shazier | 6'2" | 210 | Pompano Beach, FL | 111 | Ohio State |
| 13. | Anthony Wallace | 6'0" | 221 | Dallas, TX | 126 | Oregon |
| 14. | Tre Madden | 6'0" | 220 | Mission Viejo, CA | 130 | USC |
| 15. | Lamar Dawson | 6'2" | 235 | Danville, KY | 133 | USC |
| 16. | Sterling Bailey | 6'5" | 260 | Gainesville, GA | 146 | Georgia |
| 17. | Ben Councell | 6'5" | 220 | Ashville, NC | 164 | Notre Dame |
| 18. | A.J. Johnson | 6'3" | 245 | Gainesville, GA | 166 | Tennessee |
| 19. | Anthony Sarao | 6'0" | 210 | Absecon, NJ | 183 | USC |
| 20. | Shannon Brown | 6'2" | 225 | Adel, GA | 184 | Alabama |
| 21. | Jason Gibson | 6'3" | 215 | Gardena, CA | 190 | Cal |
| 22. | Trevon Randle | 6'1" | 205 | League City, TX | 197 | LSU |
| 23. | Lateek Townsend | 6'2" | 200 | Bennettsville, SC | 213 | Clemson |
| 24. | Kendall Thompson | 6'3" | 230 | Carthage, TX | 225 | Texas |
| 25. | Anthony Rabasa | 6'4" | 233 | Miami, FL | 239 | Notre Dame |
- by Braden Gall (@AthlonBraden)
