Chuba Hubbard Named One of Three Doak Walker Award Finalists

Chuba Hubbard has made the final cut of three candidates for the Doak Walker Award, given each year to college football’s top running back by the SMU PwC Athletic Forum.

Hubbard joins Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor and Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins as finalists for the award. Taylor was last year’s Doak Walker recipient. Only Arkansas’ Darren McFadden (2006 and 2007) and Texas running back Ricky Williams (1997 and 1998) have won the award multiple times.

But Chuba has more than history on his side when it comes to his standing. A peek at his numbers should make him the favorite in anyone’s book.

Here’s a look at the three finalists’ resumes through 11 games.

Chuba Hubbard — 1,832 rushing yards, 20 TDs, 6.4 YPC
Jonathan Taylor — 1,685 rushing yards, 18 TDs, 6.5 YPC
J.K. Dobbins — 1,446 rushing yards, 15 TDs, 6.6 YPC

Chuba is coming off his lowest rushing total since Week 2 — which was still 106 yards — but turned in a career-high 88 receiving yards while catching all of his career-high seven targets.

The winner will be announced as part of The Home Depot College Football
Awards on ESPN Dec. 12 which might put the Cowboy talkback at a slight disadvantage. That announcement will come just five days after the Big Ten championship which could feature both Taylor and Dobbins if Wisconsin beats Minnesota this weekend. Ohio State has already clinched the Big Ten East title.

Voting for the award is set to open Dec. 3, but the award’s own website lists Dec. 2, as the date for the release of the three finalists, which were announced on November 25. The website does not specify when voting closes. Either way, both Taylor and Dobbins could potentially (Dobbins will) have an extra game to gain on Chuba’s rushing total.

There’s still a pretty good chance that Chuba keeps his lead even spotting these other guys an extra game and that he’ll have done enough to win the award — in spite of any recency or helmet sticker bias — with a big performance in this weekend’s Bedlam matchup.

No Cowboy has ever won the award, but Kendall Hunter was a finalist in 2010. The first Doak Walker hardware was handed out in 1990, Barry Sanders’ rookie season in the NFL.