2012 College Football Recruiting Rankings: RBs

- by Braden Gall (@BradenGall on twitter)

The next batch of in-coming college football All-Americans have inked their respective letters of intent. Recruiting is the life blood of the greatest sport on the planet, and, while coaching stills plays the biggest role in winning a championship, having better players can go a long way to earning a trip to the BCS.

Recruiting is an inexact science by definition. It is virtually impossible to accurately peg the mental make-up of any 17-year old child -- much less high-profile, over-coddled 17-year-old athletes. But team recruiting rankings offer the best indication of which team has the best ingredients each coach has to work with each season.

Related: Athlon's Top 25 Recruiting Classes of 2012

The running back position might be the single easiest position on the football field to transition from high school to college. Marcus Lattimore, DeAnthony Thomas and others have proven that running in and around defenders is as much instinct as it is preperation. Learning blocking schemes and blitz pick-ups are major areas of work for most incoming freshman, but once the ball is in hand, it's all natural ability.

Here are the best incoming freshman running backs in the nation: