Eli Gillman stands 213 yards away from breaking Yohance Humphery's career rushing record at Montana, a mark that has survived for a quarter century.
Humphery, now working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Reno, Nevada, said Gillman is the prototypical running back. Humphery has taken notice of what Gillman has accomplished in Missoula.
He knows it's almost time to pass the torch.
WATCH: Chase Reynolds, Yohance Humphery dissect Eli Gillman's record pursuit
2:27"He's got everything that a great running back needs, really," Humphery said of Gillman during an interview with MTN Sports. "His physicality, his patience, his vision, his power.
"The thing that I didn't have was that breakaway speed that we've seen him display over the course of his career." He added: "The fact that the (record) that I set still means enough that they're still chasing it means more than keeping the record means for me."
Entering this week's game against Utah Tech, Gillman is at 3,858 rushing yards. Humphery, who played at UM from 1997 to 2001, ended his career with 4,070.
Last week, Gillman broke Chase Reynolds' school record for career rushing touchdowns. Gillman scored three times on the ground, and now has 53 rushing TDs, one more than Reynolds had while starring for the Griz from 2006-10.
With one more end zone visit, Gillman will pass Reynolds in total career touchdowns, as well. Reynolds, in his first season as Montana's radio color analyst, watched in person as Gillman broke his mark for rushing scores last week against Drake.
"It's something that I kind of was trying to prepare for," Reynolds told MTN Sports. "And honestly, in the moment, I didn't want to prepare too much. I just wanted it to kind of organically happen.
"But I think it's pretty cool that I got to be here calling the game where he broke the (rushing TD) record. I think it's a special opportunity for a guy like me to kind of still be involved. To be able to call that touchdown and watch him break the record was pretty special."
Both Humphery and Reynolds are quick to acknowledge Gillman's greatness while also looking back on their own. Here is a further breakdown comparing and contrasting each player as Gillman pushes closer to more history:
Yohance Humphery: Ultimate workhorse
Humphery readily admits he didn't have the kind of speed Gillman possesses. Humphery laughs when thinking back that his teammates lovingly dubbed him, "Slow-hance."
But what he lacked in the speed department he more than made up for with his vision, balance, patience and durability. And the Eagle River, Alaska, product was a physical back for being relatively "small," though he beefed up to 210 pounds by his senior season which of course was when he cemented himself as an all-time Griz great.
"I made it work between the tackles," Humphery recalled. "Knowing the scheme and then my ability to make people miss, that was my bread and butter.
"I might not have been the biggest or the strongest or the fastest, but if it came down to me and you in the hole, I was either going to go right into your chest or make you miss."
In the 2001 national championship game in Chattanooga, Tenn., Humphery carried the ball 30 times for 142 yards and scored his team's only touchdown at the end of a 99-yard drive. Montana beat Furman 13-6 to win its second national title.
Humphery finished that season with 1,658 yards and averaged 138.2 yards per game, which is by far a school record.
Remember, too, it wasn't until 2002 that the NCAA began including postseason statistics to a player's total. So Humphery's actual (but not official) rushing numbers are 4,892 yards and 54 touchdowns, and in 2001 he had 2,101 yards on 362 rushing attempts with 23 rushing TDs.
Chase Reynolds: Slashing and punishing
Like Humphery, Reynolds, previously an 8-Man star at Drummond, was a bell cow in an era where three-down, four-quarter rushers were more common.
Reynolds and Humphery share the school record for most carries in a game — Reynolds with 38 for 233 yards in a playoff game against Texas State in 2008 and Humphery with 38 for a record 265 yards against Weber State in 2001.
In 2009 Reynolds had 321 attempts for 1,583 yards, which was the end of a staggering two-year run in which he helped the Griz reach consecutive national title games. He finished with 793 career attempts — Lex Hilliard has the record with 806 — and 4,067 yards, just three shy of matching Humphery.
At 6-feet and 200 pounds, Reynolds also possessed good speed to complement his physical traits. That's what helped him transition to the NFL.
"Pound the ball, pound the ball, that's kind of what my style was," Reynolds said. "And then we'd break one for 40, 50."
For Reynolds, Gillman's rush toward history is a continuation of a lineage of great Griz running backs.
"Guys way before us have built the foundation," he added. "You've got Yohance Humphery, you've got Lex Hilliard. All of those guys to me are still the greatest running backs to ever come out of here. Yes, I'm in that sentence. Eli's in that sentence. But this foundation was built, you know, way before I got there, before Eli got there."
Eli Gillman: The total package
Gillman seems like he has the perfect mix of talent. While Humphery had the patience and vision and Reynolds was a physical pounder who wore down defenses, Gillman combines power with game-breaking speed.
With one touch, Gillman can go the distance. But at 215 pounds and with upper legs the size of tree trunks, the Dassel, Minn., product can run through you as well as cut past you and sprint by you.
"He's got tons of speed. He's a very patient runner and he's slippery," Reynolds said. "That's my best word for Eli. When you think that he's down and the play is broken, he finds a way to get through.
"I think all running backs kind of have their own little personalities, and his is just finding a way to make a play happen."
Gillman also operates in a different era of college football. Humphery and Reynolds played at a time when workhorse backs regularly racked up 30 carries a game to hit their milestone yardage around a ball-control concept.
But Gillman plays in a modern, multi-back system with a high-flying offense, making his record pursuit all about efficiency.
No matter how he gets there — and Gillman is on pace to not only break the yards record but shatter it — the time has almost come for someone new to take the mantle.
"I was like, man, this is great," Humphery said. "One, I started looking at the time frame and I was like, 'OK, this is a quarter century I've had this record.' That's cool. So I was really filled with pride that the record has been around for that long.
"But, two, pride in the program, because it's continued to show that Montana as a program is still creating special players, still winning a bunch of games, and it's a place that in today's environment of NIL that its culture has kept a player like Eli, and a back like Eli wants to stay there and continue to make history. So it means a lot that the record will be broken this year. It's not a question of if."