The nation’s top running backs made highlight-reel plays all season long while making defenders look silly game after game. The 2023 season will forever be known as the season in which Ollie Gordon II was the best running back, however, as he was awarded the 2023 Doak Walker Award.
Given out on Friday during the Home Depot College Football Awards Show, Gordon is the new baddest man in the backfield.
Ollie Gordon II Wins 2023 Doak Walker Award
It was a dominant season for running backs in college football as 42 different running backs totaled over 1,000 rushing yards. Making matters even more favorable for the ground attacks in college football, a total of 50 backs scored double-digit touchdowns on the ground this season as well.
In the end, it was Gordon who took home the sport’s top hardware for running back.
Gordon beat out a star-studded finalist group of three players, edging out Missouri’s Cody Schrader and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton.
For the Cowboys in 2023, Gordon led the nation in rushing yards. His 1,614 yards and 20 touchdowns paced the finalists and were among the tops in the country. Gordon stole the show during a midseason stretch that saw him emerge as the best back in college football.
Over the course of back-to-back games, Gordon reached at least 270 yards on the ground and multiple scores against Cincinnati and West Virginia in what was the best month of October we’ve seen from a running back in some time.
MORE: List of Doak Walker Award Winners by Year
Hampton had a deceptively quiet season for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He recorded 1,442 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns, though his quarterback got most of the national praise. Hampton’s place as a finalist, however, continues to put the talented — and three-down — back on the national radar.
There wasn’t a better feel-good story than Schrader’s in 2023. The Missouri back ran for 1,489 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns as a former walk-on and Truman State transfer broke out in the biggest way this past season.
His place in college football history is etched forever as he won the 2023 Burlsworth Trophy, given out to the best player for a given season who started their career as a walk-on.
Gordon won the award in the end, but it was a dominant season for all three of the finalists, and it was a dramatically dominant season for running backs as a whole. The position is alive and well in college football.