Player Dossier

2021-2025

USC

Eli Sanders

RB • 5'10" • 200 lbs • Oceanside, CA, USA

Explosive all-purpose backBig-play efficiency

Eli Sanders leans explosive all-purpose back traits and 69.5 efficiency.

Usage / Role

19%

Rotational offensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

56

Solid production for a back

lowelite

Reliability

57

Useful contributor with volatile peaks

lowhigh

Star Power

62

Useful peak profile

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2024 Regular Season · New Mexico

2122232425

Snapshot

Career Teams
3
Unique Seasons
5
Program Path
Iowa State • New Mexico • USC
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Wyoming

Player Story

Eli Sanders built his college career from 2021 through 2025 as a running back from Oceanside, CA wearing No. 1, spending time with Iowa State, New Mexico, and USC. The clearest part of Eli Sanders' career was his...

Read the story
3★

Recruit Profile

Class 2021 · Rating 0.8778

Chandler · Chandler, AZ

Committed To
Iowa State
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2021

Eli Sanders, RB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2024 Regular Season · New Mexico. Eli Sanders leans explosive all-purpose back traits and 69.5 efficiency.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Scrimmage yards
2,410
Rushing yards
2,015
Receiving yards
395
Touchdowns
17

Quick Answers

Eli Sanders quick answers

Latest team and position
USC · RB
Career Scrimmage Yards
2,410
Tracked sample
5 unique seasons · 5 entries · 38 games
Best season
2024 Regular Season · New Mexico
Top game
Wyoming
Recruit profile
3-star · Chandler · Iowa State
High school pipeline
Chandler · 58 FBS recruits · 8 drafted players
Latest roster
No. 1 · Senior
2025 Scrimmage yards rank
384 scrimmage yards · RB 253rd (top 35%) · Big Ten 88th (top 26%) · National 652nd (top 24%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesScrimmageRush YdsRec YdsTDOverall
2021 Regular SeasonIowa State3702941032.9
2022 Regular SeasonIowa State823818751032.8
2023 Regular SeasonIowa State952047743557.1
2024 Regular SeasonNew Mexico121,1981,064134975.1
2025 Regular SeasonUSC6384258126353.9

Related Context

Transfer Portal History

Matched portal movement

SeasonPathMovementValueDate
2025New Mexico to USCG5/FCS to P478.2Dec 18, 2024
2024Iowa State to New MexicoP4 to G5/FCS76.8Dec 4, 2023

Eli Sanders played RB for Iowa State, New Mexico, and USC. Across 5 tracked seasons, Eli Sanders recorded 2,015 rushing yards, 395 receiving yards, and 1 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2024 with New Mexico.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2024 Regular Season

New Mexico paired 1,198 primary output with 68.5 efficiency.

Supporting note

2025 Regular Season role shape

backfield-heavy usage with 69.5 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value cooled off

2025 Regular Season fell back from the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Multi-stop career journey

Production spans 3 team stops, with role shifts visible across Iowa State, New Mexico, USC.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Michigan State

Win with 101 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value. It landed in the 83.3th 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.

2025 Regular Season · USC

Games

6

Scrimmage Yards / G

64

Efficiency

69.5

Usage

15.3

Consistency

70.2

Best Game by takeover score

Michigan State

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. Missouri State: 106. Georgia Southern: 65. Purdue: 77. Michigan State: 101. Illinois: 24. Michigan: 11

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. Missouri State: 6 by 91.3. Georgia Southern: 10 by 67.7. Purdue: 11 by 76. Michigan State: 15 by 68.4. Illinois: 9 by 22. Michigan: 1 by 91.7

Split Comparison

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

Wins72 · Games = 5 · +48 vs Losses
Losses24 · Games = 1 · -48 vs Wins

Game Log

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

6 games

Featured metric

Scrimmage Yards

Top game by takeover score

Michigan State

Best efficiency game

91.7 vs Michigan

Result
Sat 10/11vs MichiganW 31-1311111
Sat 9/27@ IllinoisL 32-348141.8001102.7
Sun 9/21vs Michigan StateW 45-3113846.5002176.7
Sat 9/13@ PurdueW 33-1710757.500127
Sat 9/6vs Georgia Southern2+ TDW 59-208526.5022136.5
Sat 8/30vs Missouri StateW 73-135336.60017317.7

Player Story

Eli Sanders story

Eli Sanders built his college career from 2021 through 2025 as a running back from Oceanside, CA wearing No. 1, spending time with Iowa State, New Mexico, and USC. The clearest part of Eli Sanders' career was his backfield work: 2,015 rushing yards, 350 carries, 15 rushing touchdowns, and 395 receiving yards across 38 career games in the available record. His career also includes 395 receiving yards, 1 tackle, and 172 return yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. That gives Eli Sanders' career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.

Career Arc

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

  1. 1

    Iowa State

    2021-2023

    Opening stop

  2. 2

    New Mexico

    2024

    Peak year stop

  3. 3

    USC

    2025

    Final stop

Season Value Progression

20212022202320242025
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2021 Regular SeasonIowa State7038.67.5
2022 Regular SeasonIowa State23834.611.4168
2023 Regular SeasonIowa State52047.522.9282
2024 Regular SeasonNew Mexico1,19868.524.3678
2025 Regular SeasonUSC38469.515.3-814

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

vs Wyoming

Week 10 · L 45-49 · Conference game

Loss with 211 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

211

Scrimmage Yards

99.6 takeover

211 scrimmage yards and 40 usage.

#2

@ San Diego State

Week 11 · W 21-16 · Conference game

180

Scrimmage Yards

92.3 takeover

Win with 180 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

180 scrimmage yards and 35.3 usage.

#3

vs TCU

Week 6 · W 27-14 · Conference game

99

Scrimmage Yards

82.9 takeover

Win with 99 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

99 scrimmage yards and 30.2 usage.

#4

@ Baylor

Week 9 · W 30-18 · Conference game

101

Scrimmage Yards

82.5 takeover

Win with 101 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

101 scrimmage yards and 27.8 usage.

#5

@ TCU

Week 13 · L 14-62 · Conference game

91

Scrimmage Yards

80 takeover

Loss with 91 yards from scrimmage and efficient touch value.

91 scrimmage yards and 14 usage.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2024 Regular Season · New Mexico

1,198 primary output · 68.5 efficiency · 24.3 usage

75.1

#2

2023 Regular Season · Iowa State

57.1

520 primary · 47.5 efficiency · 22.9 usage

#3

2025 Regular Season · USC

53.9

384 primary · 69.5 efficiency · 15.3 usage

Milestones

4

100+ rush yards

3

150+ scrimmage yards

5

2+ TD games