Oklahoma State Star Running Back Named Doak Walker Award Finalist

Ollie Gordon has been one of the premier running backs in the entirety of college football this season, and he could potentially earn some hardware for it.

The Oklahoma State Cowboys' season turnaround has a very obvious point in which things turned for the better. In Week 4, the Cowboys lost to Iowa State, though it ended up being a good loss and a turning point for the better. The team began to find its identity and that happened to be a balanced approach with Alan Bowman under center full-time with Ollie Gordon as the featured running back in the offense.

The loss against Iowa State was Gordon's "breakout" game. The potential was there for the first three weeks, though the snaps and touches were not. Once he began getting the deserved amount of touches, the season changed for the better.

Gordon is now receiving additional national praise and respect, as he is one of the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award. 

Through 12 regular season games, Gordon finished with 1,580 on 245 carries -- good for an average of 6.4 yards per carry on the season -- with 20 touchdowns on the ground for the season. 

Considering Gordon didn't play much in his first three games, his numbers jump off the wall. He could definitely be lobbying for a trip to New York as a Heisman finalist if he played well in those first three games in which he barely touched the ball. 

The other two candidates include North Carolina's Omarion Hampton, who finished the regular season with 1,442 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns, and Cody Schrader from Missouri, who finished with 1,489 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. 

One of the last running backs to be a finalist for this award was Chuba Hubbard, who was a finalist in 2019. He finished that season with 1,832 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns, better numbers than Gordon has this season, though he didn't get selected for the award.

It's also interesting to see Hubbard's numbers from that season, and Gordon's being so similar despite not getting many touches in the first three weeks of the season. 

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