Player Dossier

2020-2022

Pittsburgh

Israel Abanikanda

RB • 5'11" • 215 lbs • Brooklyn, NY, USA

Workhorse runnerSteady chain mover

Israel Abanikanda leans workhorse runner traits and 59.4 efficiency.

Usage / Role

89%

Featured offensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

100

Top-tier box-score impact for a back

lowelite

Reliability

80

Regular contributor with several takeover games

lowhigh

Star Power

91

Elite ceiling indicators

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2022 Regular Season · Pittsburgh

20212122

Snapshot

Career Teams
1
Unique Seasons
3
Program Path
Pittsburgh
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Virginia Tech

Player Story

Israel Abanikanda built his college career from 2020 through 2022 as a running back from Brooklyn, NY wearing No. 2, spending time with Pittsburgh. The clearest part of Israel Abanikanda's career was his backfield...

Read the story
3★

Recruit Profile

Class 2020 · Rating 0.8881

Abraham Lincoln · Brooklyn, NY

Committed To
Pittsburgh
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2020

NFL Draft

Draft Year
2023
Selection
Round 5 · Pick 9
Overall
No. 143
NFL Team
New York Jets

Israel Abanikanda, RB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2022 Regular Season · Pittsburgh. Israel Abanikanda leans workhorse runner traits and 59.4 efficiency.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Scrimmage yards
2,531
Rushing yards
2,177
Receiving yards
354
Touchdowns
33

Quick Answers

Israel Abanikanda quick answers

Latest team and position
Pittsburgh · RB
Career Scrimmage Yards
2,531
Tracked sample
3 unique seasons · 4 entries · 30 games
Best season
2022 Regular Season · Pittsburgh
Top game
Virginia Tech
Recruit profile
3-star · Abraham Lincoln · Pittsburgh
High school pipeline
Abraham Lincoln · 6 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
NFL Draft
2023 · Round 5 · Pick 9 · New York Jets
Latest roster
No. 2 · Junior
2022 Scrimmage yards rank
1,577 scrimmage yards · RB 16th (top 3%) · ACC 1st (top 1%) · National 16th (top 1%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesScrimmageRush YdsRec YdsTDOverall
2020 Regular SeasonPittsburgh61069511231.7
2021 PostseasonPittsburgh1316160055
2021 Regular SeasonPittsburgh138326351971055
2022 Regular SeasonPittsburgh111,5771,4311462183.2

Related Context

Israel Abanikanda played RB for Pittsburgh. Across 3 tracked seasons, Israel Abanikanda recorded 2,177 rushing yards, 354 receiving yards, and 33 touchdowns. His top tracked season came in 2022 with Pittsburgh.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2022 Regular Season

Pittsburgh paired 1,577 primary output with 59.4 efficiency.

Supporting note

2022 Regular Season role shape

backfield-heavy usage with 59.4 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value is trending up

2022 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Virginia Tech

Win driven by a workhorse rushing load. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2022 Regular Season · Pittsburgh

Games

11

Scrimmage Yards / G

143.4

Efficiency

59.4

Usage

41.2

Consistency

73.3

Best Game by takeover score

Virginia Tech

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

Hover over a point

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Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. West Virginia: 39. Tennessee: 175. Western Michigan: 128. Rhode Island: 196. Georgia Tech: 31. Virginia Tech: 320. Louisville: 179. North Carolina: 127. Virginia: 129. Duke: 134. Miami: 119

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. West Virginia: 9 by 29.8. Tennessee: 26 by 66.5. Western Michigan: 32 by 43.5. Rhode Island: 20 by 90.8. Georgia Tech: 10 by 32.3. Virginia Tech: 36 by 87. Louisville: 31 by 52.9. North Carolina: 26 by 50.9. Virginia: 25 by 53. Duke: 19 by 70.9. Miami: 17 by 75.4

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins152.1 · Games = 7 · +24.1 vs Losses
Losses128 · Games = 4 · -24.1 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

11 games

Featured metric

Scrimmage Yards

Top game by takeover score

Virginia Tech

Best efficiency game

90.8 vs Rhode Island

Result
Sun 11/27@ Miami100 rush yards · 2+ TDW 42-16151117.402287
Sat 11/19vs Duke100 rush yardsW 28-26171136.6012217.1
Sat 11/12@ Virginia100 rush yardsW 37-72412151185.2
Sun 10/30@ North Carolina100 rush yards · 2+ TDL 24-42261274.9034.9
Sun 10/23@ Louisville100 rush yards · 150 scrimmage yardsL 10-24281294.6013505.8
Sat 10/8vs Virginia Tech100 rush yards · 150 scrimmage yardsW 45-29363208.9068.9
Sun 10/2vs Georgia TechL 21-2610313.1003.1
Sat 9/24vs Rhode Island100 rush yards · 150 scrimmage yardsW 45-24191779.3041199.8
Sat 9/17@ Western Michigan100 rush yardsW 34-13311334.3011-54
Sat 9/10vs Tennessee100 rush yards · 150 scrimmage yardsL 27-34251546.2011216.7
Thu 9/1vs West VirginiaW 38-318151.9001244.3

Player Story

Israel Abanikanda story

Israel Abanikanda built his college career from 2020 through 2022 as a running back from Brooklyn, NY wearing No. 2, spending time with Pittsburgh. The clearest part of Israel Abanikanda's career was his backfield work: 2,177 rushing yards, 390 carries, 28 rushing touchdowns, and 354 receiving yards across 30 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2022 with Pittsburgh. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.

The value of the career arc is that it connects production to role, not just a name on a roster. His career also includes 354 receiving yards and 434 return yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 30 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Pittsburgh.

The arc is straightforward: Israel Abanikanda moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Pittsburgh

    2020-2022

    Opening stop

Season Value Progression

2020202120212022
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2020 Regular SeasonPittsburgh10631.28.8
2021 PostseasonPittsburgh84852.417.3742
2021 Regular SeasonPittsburgh84852.417.30
2022 Regular SeasonPittsburgh1,57759.441.2729

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

vs Virginia Tech

Week 6 · W 45-29 · Conference game

Win driven by a workhorse rushing load.

320

Scrimmage Yards

95.7 takeover

320 scrimmage yards and 62.1 usage.

#2

@ Virginia Tech

Week 7 · W 28-7 · Conference game

140

Scrimmage Yards

86.8 takeover

Win driven by a workhorse rushing load.

140 scrimmage yards and 31.8 usage.

#3

vs Rhode Island

Week 4 · W 45-24

196

Scrimmage Yards

81.9 takeover

Win with 196 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

196 scrimmage yards and 32.8 usage.

#4

vs New Hampshire

Week 4 · W 77-7

130

Scrimmage Yards

74.4 takeover

Win with 130 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

130 scrimmage yards and 21.8 usage.

#5

vs Tennessee

Week 2 · L 27-34

175

Scrimmage Yards

73.7 takeover

Loss driven by a workhorse rushing load.

175 scrimmage yards and 41.9 usage.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2022 Regular Season · Pittsburgh

1,577 primary output · 59.4 efficiency · 41.2 usage

83.2

#2

2021 Postseason · Pittsburgh

55

848 primary · 52.4 efficiency · 17.3 usage

#3

2021 Regular Season · Pittsburgh

55

848 primary · 52.4 efficiency · 17.3 usage

Milestones

10

100+ rush yards

4

150+ scrimmage yards

7

2+ TD games