You can when you're deciding who the greatest college RBs of all time are. We aren't deciding who is good and who isn't; it's who the GOATs are.
If a guy rushed for 4,000 career yards, 6 YPC in college with gaping holes on most runs and another guy has similar stats but routinely turned 1 yard gains into 8 yard gains, I know which one I would think was better. Even if the stats were very similar. IMO that is why it is so hard to rank them purely on stats alone because you really need to have watched all of these guys play to make a determination.