Wisconsin can lay claim to the title of “Running Back U” because one former tailback, sitting at home on a Saturday waiting for his Sunday job to start, can watch a current tailback absolutely go off and tweet about him, and then the current tailback can sit in front of a TV on Sunday and watch the guy who was just paying him a compliment destroy a professional defense the same way.

The Badgers had former tailback Melvin Gordon in town to be the honorary captain for the Nebraska game on Saturday, a not-so-subtle nod to Gordon’s 408-yard rushing performance against the Huskers years ago. And what Gordon was treated to was a 228-yard, 3-touchdown performance by freshman tailback Braelon Allen.

But Gordon wasn’t the only former Badger/current pro to be impressed by the 17-year-old Allen’s performance. Jonathan Taylor, one of the most productive tailbacks in college football history, seemed pretty excited about Allen.

And then Taylor turned around and put up a 185-yard, 5-touchdown performance of his own to help the Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills 41-15.

Of course, Allen returned the love.

Taylor set records as a Wisconsin running back and he set records again on Sunday. Allen has been making a name for himself in the same way. With 173 yards rushing against Northwestern on Nov. 13, Allen became the first freshman Badger tailback with 6 straight 100-yard games in over a decade. His performance in Wisconsin’s 35-28 win over Nebraska bumped his season yardage total up over 1,000 yards, putting him in a class of Ron Dayne, James White, and Taylor as true freshmen to hit 1,000 yards rushing in the last 30 years.

Wisconsin running backs, nothing quite like ’em.