Keaontay Ingram named to Doak Walker Award watch list

By Steve Lansdale

AUSTIN, Texas — For the second time in as many seasons, Texas running back Keaontay Ingram has been named to the watch list for the Doak Walker Award, which is given annually by the PwC SMU Athletic Forum to the nation’s premier running back.

Ingram is one of 76 players on the watch list. Others from the Big 12 include Oklahoma’s Kennedy Brooks, Iowa State’s Breece Hall, Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard and Texas Tech’s SoRodorick Thompson.

Three Longhorns have won the award before. Ricky Williams won the award in 1997 and 1998, Cedric Benson took it home in 2004 and D’Onta Foreman claimed the hardware in 2016. The four Doak Walker Awards won by Texas running backs give UT the second-highest total in the history of the award; Wisconsin running backs have won it five times.

In his first two seasons at Texas, Ingram has rushed for 1,561 yards and 10 touchdowns. He is also the first Longhorn to rush for 700-plus yards in consecutive seasons since Malcolm Brown in 2013-14. In 2019, he ran for 853 yards and pulled in 29 receptions, the 10th-most by a UT running back in a season, and the most since Fozzy Whittaker caught 34 passes in 2010.

Ingram has rushed for at least 100 yards in a game five times, including four last season — the Longhorns won all four of those games.

The PwC SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors will name 10 semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award in November, and three finalists, as voted on by the Doak Walker Award National Selection Committee, will be announced later that month. The National Selection Committee consists of past winners, former NFL All-Pro and collegiate All-America running backs, media members and selected special representatives.

The recipient of the 2020 Doak Walker Award will be announced live on The Home Depot College Football Awards.