Was Gophers' Mohamed Ibrahim snubbed in race for Doak Walker Award?
Mohamed Ibrahim's final season with the Golden Gophers will not end with an award for being the nation's top running back.
The Doak Walker Award finalists were announced Tuesday and Ibrahim did not make the final cut. The three finalists are Chase Brown of Illinois, Blake Corum of Michigan and Bijan Robinson of Texas. Ibrahim was one of ten semifinalists.
Ibrahim is fourth in the nation with 1,594 rushing yards and his 19 rushing touchdowns are tied for the second most in the country. Ibrahim has racked up those totals on 304 carries in 11 games.
Here's what Brown, Corum and Robinson have done.
- Brown: 1,643 yards and 10 touchdowns on 328 carries in 12 games
- Corum: 1,463 yards and 18 touchdowns on 247 carries in 12 games
- Robinson: 1,580 yards and 18 touchdowns on 258 carries in 12 games
So, yes, Ibrahim has posted his totals in one fewer game, but he's had more 57 more carries than Corum and 46 more than Robinson.
What Ibrahim didn't have that the other finalists had was a passing game to alleviate the pressure and balance the offense. Minnesota's passing offense ranks 114th in the nation, averaging just 186 yards through the air per game. Texas ranked 62nd, Michigan 91st and Illinois 98th.
Ibrahim also had to run against four of the top 15 rush defenses in the country: Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State.
Snubbed? Probably not. Disappointing? Sure.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.