Montana RB Eli Gillman Chases Grizzlies Rushing Records Heading Into 2026

Three names stand between Eli Gillman and Montana football immortality: Lex Hilliard, Chase Reynolds, and Yohance Humphery. Gillman's 3,677 career yards rank fourth all-time behind Humphery (4,070), Reynolds (4,067) and Hilliard (4,018). The gap is real but shrinking fast, and Gillman's yards-per-carry mark suggests he could break the record early in the 2026 campaign. For a 6-foot, 213-pound Minnesota native entering his senior season, the math is very much in his favor.

Building the Foundation: 2022-2024

Gillman's path to this record chase started quietly. He played in just two games in 2022, totaling 65 rushing yards and a score while preserving his redshirt status. The following year changed everything. In 2023, he rushed 194 times for 968 yards and 12 touchdowns at 5.0 yards per carry, posting the third-most rushing yards for a freshman in all of Division I football and becoming a household name in FCS circles. The awards followed in a hurry: All-Big Sky Second Team, Big Sky Freshman of the Year, and the Jerry Rice Award as the nation's best FCS freshman. He was a runaway winner of the 13th annual Jerry Rice Award, with a national 56-member panel voting him the winner with 203 points, nearly 100 more than the runner-up, and he became the first Grizzly to ever win the Big Sky Freshman of the Year.

The 2024 season brought another step forward. Gillman ran 167 times for 1,104 yards and 15 touchdowns, bumping his efficiency to 6.6 yards per carry and earning a second consecutive All-Big Sky Second Team nod. He was building something methodically in Missoula, season by season, carry by carry.

A Career-Best 2025 Season

The 2025 campaign was when Gillman stopped being a promising back and started being an all-time one. As a redshirt junior, Gillman carried the ball 250 times for 1,540 yards and 21 touchdowns. He posted just the fourth season ever that a Griz running back eclipsed 1,500 yards rushing in a single season. His national FCS rankings told the same story: fifth in rushing yards, third in rushing touchdowns, and ninth in rushing yards per game at 102.7. His 90.3 PFF rushing grade ranked sixth among all FCS running backs, a metric that measures efficiency and run quality well beyond simple counting stats.

The honors reflected the production. For the first time in over two decades, a Grizzly was named Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year, with coaches around the conference tabbing Gillman the league's MVP. Gillman joined a rare group of just 13 running backs to earn Offensive MVP honors since the Big Sky started handing out the award in 1974, and became one of just three players to be named Big Sky Freshman of the Year and then go on to earn Offensive Player of the Year, joining Troy Andersen and Cooper Kupp in that distinction. He also received multiple All-American accolades and earned a spot on the All-Big Sky First Team. In the passing game, he added 33 receptions for 240 yards in 2025, bringing his career receiving totals to 71 catches for 561 yards and four receiving touchdowns.

Gillman's own words capture the mindset that has fueled the ascent. "I just try to think about improving every year," he said. "And as soon as the season ends, there's a little break time, but then you got to get straight back to work. And I'm not trying to be the same every year. I'm trying to improve. So I feel like that's just what I keep trying to do."

The Central Washington Game: A Night for the Record Books

No single performance better illustrated what Gillman is capable of than his showdown against Central Washington. He broke free for a 54-yard touchdown run on his very first carry and never looked back, finishing with 198 rushing yards and a career-high three touchdowns, the 12th-highest single-game total in Grizzly history. His 13.2 yards per carry that night was a new single-game career high and led the Big Sky among backs with six or more carries. The 198-yard effort was not just a conference-best rushing day; it ranked as the third-best rushing performance in all of Division I football at that point in the season.

The vision on display was surgical. As MontanaSports reported, "He single-handedly put up 18 of Montana's 42 points against the Wildcats, starting with a 54-yard run and breaking away for five chunk plays of over 10 yards, including a 61-yard carry where he was tripped up just short of the goal line." Teammate Keali'i Ah Yat needed only five words to summarize it: Gillman had "one of those iconic games" against Central Washington.

The Big Sky agreed, naming him Offensive Player of the Week. Remarkably, as MontanaSports noted, "it's only the second time in his illustrious career he's earned weekly honors from the conference," a detail that says less about Gillman's ceiling and more about how consistently elite he has to be before any individual game registers as extraordinary.

The Record Chase in Real Terms

His 49 career rushing touchdowns are third behind Reynolds (52) and Hilliard (50). His 53 total touchdowns in his career are also second all-time behind Reynolds (59). On the yardage side, the three players ahead of him are separated by a combined 393 yards at the top of the program's all-time chart. With a 6.2 yards-per-carry career average and a full senior season ahead, none of those marks are safe.

Gillman has spoken about what it means to build that legacy in Missoula: "I just feel like cementing your name somewhere that means a lot to you personally is special. This place has had a place in my heart since I got here. And I feel like I want to keep it like that forever. This place has been nothing but great to me."

In the transfer portal era, that kind of loyalty is increasingly rare. In the world of transfers, Gillman could've left, but he stayed put and is reaping his rewards. He announced he would be coming back and finishing his college career in Missoula.

What 2026 Looks Like

Montana returns one of the most explosive offenses in the FCS. The Grizzlies averaged 41.0 points per game in 2025, ranking fourth nationally in scoring, and Gillman is the engine that drives it. He is one of just three players in Big Sky history to be named Freshman of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year in a conference that produced Cooper Kupp and Troy Andersen, two names that need no introduction at the next level.

The numbers heading into his senior campaign are staggering in their proximity to history. Four hundred yards separates Gillman from the all-time Montana rushing record. Three touchdowns separate him from Hilliard. Two programs records sit within a single productive season's reach. Gillman is now Montana's first Big Sky Offensive MVP since quarterback John Edwards earned the honor in 2002, and the Grizzly faithful have every reason to believe the most storied chapters of his career in Missoula are still being written.