Chase Brown is playing on another planet right now. The star RB for Illinois leads the nation in rushing entering Week 8 and has already set a career-high with 1,059 yards in 2022.

Brown has also been used in the passing attack for the Illini and has 6 offensive touchdowns in 2022, also a new career-high mark. He also joined some very elite company with Illinois improving to 6-1 with a win over Minnesota.

According to Illinois Football, Brown is just the 3rd Power 5 RB to have 7 straight 100-yard seasons for a team starting the season 6-1 or better since 2000. The other two RBs to achieve those marks were Adrian Peterson for Oklahoma in 2004 and Ezekiel Elliott for Ohio State in 2015.

For Peterson, he rushed for 1,023 yards and 7 touchdowns while the Sooners began the season 7-0. Elliott began 2015 with 988 yards and 11 touchdowns while the Buckeyes also started 7-0.

In terms of end-of-the-season numbers, Peterson finished with 1,925 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns while Elliott racked up 1,821 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns. Both players also finished in the top 10 of voting for the Heisman trophy with Peterson finishing 2nd for the award in 2004.

We’ll see if Brown can chase those numbers at the end of the season and what that means for his chances at the Heisman.