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Doak Walker Award
American college football award
American college football award
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Doak Walker Award |
| image | Toby Gerhart's Doak Walker Award 1.JPG |
| caption | The Doak Walker Award, designed by artist Blair Buswell |
| description | The nation's top college football running back |
| presenter | SMU |
| country | United States |
| year | 1990 |
| holder | Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame |
| website |
The Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. Established in 1990, it is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions from 1950 to 1955. The player is selected by the award's National Selection Committee, which consists of notable sportswriters, television commentators, analysts, radio sports personalities and former All-America and NFL All-Pro football players. Recipients receive a bronze sculpture of Doak Walker, designed by artist Blair Buswell. The most recent winner of the award was Jeremiyah Love of Notre Dame.
Notable Accomplishments
Wisconsin running backs won four times in eight years from 2012 to 2019. Wisconsin and Texas are tied with the most wins with 5 apiece.
Ricky Williams (Texas – 1997, 1998), Darren McFadden (Arkansas – 2006, 2007) and Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin – 2018, 2019) are the only three players to win the award more than once.
Winners
| Made at least one Pro Bowl during NFL career |
|---|
| Year | Winner | School | Ref | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Washington | |||||||||
| 1991 | Rice | |||||||||
| 1992 | Georgia | |||||||||
| 1993 | Texas Tech | |||||||||
| 1994 | Colorado | |||||||||
| 1995 | Ohio State | |||||||||
| 1996 | Texas Tech (2) | |||||||||
| 1997 | Texas | |||||||||
| 1998 | Texas (2) | |||||||||
| 1999 | Wisconsin | |||||||||
| 2000 | TCU | |||||||||
| 2001 | BYU | |||||||||
| 2002 | Penn State | |||||||||
| 2003 | Michigan | |||||||||
| 2004 | Texas (3) | |||||||||
| 2005 | USC | |||||||||
| 2006 | Arkansas | |||||||||
| 2007 | Arkansas (2) | |||||||||
| 2008 | Iowa | |||||||||
| 2009 | Stanford | |||||||||
| 2010 | Oregon | |||||||||
| 2011 | Alabama | |||||||||
| 2012 | Wisconsin (2) | |||||||||
| 2013 | Boston College | |||||||||
| 2014 | Wisconsin (3) | |||||||||
| 2015 | Derrick Henry | Alabama (2) | last=Galloway | first=Jason | title=Badgers running back Jonathan Taylor becomes 4th Wisconsin player to win Doak Walker Award | url=https://madison.com/sports/college/football/badgers-running-back-jonathan-taylor-becomes-th-wisconsin-player-to/article_4db7c942-a5f2-5d4b-840f-89131c7a61a4.html | access-date=2018-12-07 | website=madison.com | date=7 December 2018 | language=en}} |
| 2016 | D'Onta Foreman | Texas (4) | ||||||||
| 2017 | Bryce Love | Stanford (2) | ||||||||
| 2018 | Jonathan Taylor | Wisconsin (4) | ||||||||
| 2019 | Wisconsin (5) | |||||||||
| 2020 | Najee Harris | Alabama (3) | ||||||||
| 2021 | Kenneth Walker III | Michigan State | ||||||||
| 2022 | Bijan Robinson | Texas (5) | ||||||||
| 2023 | Ollie Gordon II | Oklahoma State | ||||||||
| 2024 | Ashton Jeanty | Boise State | ||||||||
| 2025 | Jeremiyah Love | Notre Dame |
References
;General
- Doak Walker Award Winners. Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
- College Football Awards – Doak Walker Award. ESPN.com. Retrieved December 13, 2016. ;Footnotes
References
- "Selection Committee - SMU".
- (December 9, 1999). "Dayne Wins Walker, Maxwell". [[CBS News]].
- (December 9, 2000). "TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson Named Winner of the 2000 Doak Walker Award Presented by Vectrix". [[TCU Horned Frogs.
- (December 7, 2007). "Tebow takes Maxwell, O'Brien; McFadden wins Walker". ESPN.com.
- Rittenberg, Adam. (December 11, 2008). "Iowa's Greene wins Doak Walker Award". ESPN.com.
- (December 10, 2009). "Stanford's Toby Gerhart wins Doak Walker Award". The Mercury News.
- (December 9, 2010). "Oregon RB LaMichael James wins Doak Walker Award". San Diego Union-Tribune.
- (December 8, 2011). "Alabama's Trent Richardson wins Doak Walker Award". ESPN.com.
- Temple, Jesse. (December 6, 2012). "Wisconsin's Ball wins Doak Walker Award". Fox Sports.
- Hightower, Kyle. (December 12, 2013). "BC's Andre Williams Wins Doak Walker Award".
- Potrykus, Jeff. (December 11, 2014). "Melvin Gordon wins Doak Walker Award as top running back". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- Galloway, Jason. (7 December 2018). "Badgers running back Jonathan Taylor becomes 4th Wisconsin player to win Doak Walker Award".
- Zucker, Joseph. (December 12, 2019). "Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor Wins 2019 Doak Walker Award as Nation's Best RB".
- Martin, Tyler. (January 7, 2021). "Alabama RB Najee Harris Wins 2020 Doak Walker Award".
- (12 December 2024). "Boise State's Jeanty wins Doak Walker Award, first Group of 5 player since 2001".
- Horka, Tyler. (2025-12-13). "Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love wins 2025 Doak Walker Award".
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