Ollie Gordon II Wins 2023 Doak Walker Award, Named Walter Camp All-American

The Cowboys again boast the top running back in college football. We already knew that, but now he’s got some hardware to make it official.

Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II was named the 2023 Doak Walker Award winner on Friday during the college football awards show on ESPN. The award is given to the best running back in the country. Gordon is the first Cowboy to win the award since it was created in 1990, two years after Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy.

Shortly after winning that award, he was named to the Walter Camp All-American team, the first of five “official” All-American teams. The lists that the NCAA recognizes are the AP, AFCA, FWAA and Sporting News. Gordon was previously named an All-American by Pro Football Focus and CBS Sports.

He was also a Top 10 Heisman candidate, coming in seventh in voting for the most coveted award in college football.

Gordon is the FBS leading rusher with 1,614 yards. He has the opportunity to add to that total, and his lead, when the Cowboys square off with Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 27. He rushed for 100 or more yards in eight games this season despite not earning the featured starter role until Week 4. He’s also second in the nation in rushing touchdowns with 20.

Those dominant performances and ridiculous numbers made this announcement pretty much a formality. He surpassed the other finalists, Missouri’s Cody Schrader and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton, in most statistical categories.

Earlier this week, Gordon was named an All-American by multiple outlets, joining Kendall Hunter and Chuba Hubbard as the three All-American running backs under Mike Gundy. Hubbard was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award in 2019, but he lost out to Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor despite also leading the nation in rushing yards.

The formal presentation for the award will take place on Feb. 16 at the SMU campus.