Greatest Kansas Football Players of All-Time: Bracket: Jon Cornish vs. Clark Green

(8) Jon Cornish

With arguably the most successful professional career in recent memory, Cornish is possibly underseeded in this bracket. At Kansas, he only rushed 3 times total in his first two years, coming off a medical redshirt and buried in the depth chart. However, his junior year was a breakout year for him, as he led that 2005 team in all rushing categories. He amassed 780 total yards that season with 9 rushing touchdowns, and his 72-yard TD run against the Nebraska Cornhuskers helped the Jayhawks beat them for the first time in 38 years. He rushed for 101 yards and had two huge TD receptions in the first bowl win for Mangino's Jayhawks against Houston that year.

Impressive as that junior season was, he was even better as a senior. He set the single-season mark for rushing yards at 1,457, scoring 8 rushing TDs, 1 receiving TD and getting over the 100-yard mark in 8 games. He was first-team all Big 12, and his 5.8 yards per carry is the highest in school history as well.

He went undrafted in the NFL, and instead of trying to sign as a free agent, he left for the Canadian Football League. He started out buried in the depth chart, but was part of the 2008 championship team. He started to break out in 2010, with a 7.3 YPC (highest in the CFL) that year. He led his team in rushing in 2011 despite not starting until Week 13. In 2012, he won the CFL rushing title with 1,457 yards, the same number that set the single-season mark at Kansas. He eclipsed that with 1,813 yards in 2013, won another rushing title in 2014 before health factors caused him to retire after the 2015 season.

Overall, he played 152 games in the CFL (including playoffs), amassing 1,117 rushes for 7,401 yards and 46 TDs.

(9) Clark Green

Clark Green played for the Jayhawks from 2002 to 2005, and in those 4 years totaled 2,754 yards (on 641 attempts), enough for 3rd on the all-time list for the Jayhawks. He was the leading rusher in his first two seasons, and while he was replaced by Jon Randle in 2004 and Jon Cornish in 2005 as the lead guy, he still put up good numbers for the Jayhawks during those seasons.

Green's most successful season came in 2003, when he rushed for 968 yards on 204 carries with 6 TDs, and then he racked up another 464 yards on 44 catches with 2 TDs. However, the star of the team that year was QB Bill Whittemore, and Green was never able to make a big impression among a stable of quality receivers. He went undrafted in the 2006 NFL Draft.

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