Ollie Gordon Earns Second Straight Doak Walker Weekly Honor, Let’s Look at the Award Race

Ollie Gordon earned a second consecutive triple crown of weekly honors with his performance in Morgantown: Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week and Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Player of the Week.

Then he added a Walter Camp National Player of the Week honor on top of that for good measure.

By now, you probably know the story. Gordon carried 29 times for 282 yards and four touchdowns in Oklahoma State’s win against West Virginia. So, let’s focus on Gordon’s Doak Walker honor in particular.

Gordon becomes the first two-time recipient of the weekly award this season. A select 20-person committee from the award’s full-voting body of media and past winners chooses the weekly recipient.

So, does Gordon have a shot at becoming OSU’s first Doak Walker Award winner when the 2023 season is set and done? If he keeps playing like he has the past two weeks, definitely.

Gordon ranks eighth nationally in rushing yards with 816, and he has done that on only 116 carries. Everyone above Gordon on the national list has more carries than he does. Oddly enough, of the seven players ahead of Gordon nationally, three are from the Big 12 in Texas Tech’s Tahj Books (second with 891 yards), TCU’s Emani Bailey (sixth with 851 yards) and Texas’ Jonathan Brooks (seventh with 825 yards). But, Tahj Brooks and Bailey have each played eight games to Gordon’s seven.

Troy’s Kimani Vidal leads the country in rushing with 951 yards through seven games, but it has been a long while since a Group of Five player took home the hardware. BYU’s Luke Staley was the last to do so in 2001.

Gordon ranks fifth nationally in rushing yards per game with 116.6, and has done that with games of 44 yards (Central Arkansas), 53 yards (Arizona State) and 12 yards (South Alabama). Over his past four games, Gordon has averaged 175.8 yards a game. So, there’s reason to believe his season average isn’t at its peak should he continue the way he is playing.

Among players ahead of Gordon on the national yards per game list, only Texas’ Jonathan Brooks plays at the Power Five level.

So, some of Gordon’s competition for the award could come from within his own league, but what about elsewhere?

Here is a list of the Doak Walker weekly award winners this season:

Week 8 — Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State
Week 7 — Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State
Week 6 — Trey Benson, Florida State
Week 5 — Ray Davis, Kentucky
Week 4 — DJ Giddens, Kansas State
Week 3 — Trevor Etienne, Florida
Week 2 — Omarion Hampton, North Carolina
Week 1 — Dylan Edwards, Colorado

As Gordon continues to establish himself on the national scene after limited carries to start the year, Kentucky’s Ray Davis could be the early favorite at this point in the season to take the Doak Walker.

Davis has played at Temple and Vanderbilt before this season at Kentucky. On the year, he has 111 carries for 781 yards and eight touchdowns. He also has five receiving TDs.

Here are Davis’ numbers compared to Gordon’s with both having played seven games:

It’s tight.

What will help Gordon most in the race for the Doak Walker is if he just keeps playing how he is playing. But, the Cowboys’ success could also go a long way. Both OSU and Kentucky are sitting at 5-2. The Wildcats started the year 5-0 before back-to-back losses to Georgia and Missouri. The Cowboys did their losing early in the season and have ripped up three straight behind outstanding performances from Gordon.

The Doak Walker Award has been given out annually to the nation’s most outstanding running back since 1990. No Cowboy has ever won the award.