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The second weekend of the college football season was fairly forgettable for running backs. Just three of our Top 10 Doak Walker Award candidates topped 100 yards, with T.J. Yeldon, Melvin Gordon and Ameer Abdullah struggling.
Todd Gurley, who claimed the best offensive performance in the country in Week 1, didn’t play.
RELATED: Leonard Fournette strikes Heisman pose on first touchdown
Pittsburgh’s James Conner seized the opportunity to finally register on the national radar. The 6-foot-2, 250-pound bulldozer plowed to 214 rushing yards against Boston College.
Ironic, considering former Eagles running back Andre Williams, also a between-the-tackles load, emerged from relative obscurity to have one of the greatest rushing seasons in NCAA history a year ago.
But Conner is only a sophomore. Degenerates who watched the Little Caesars Bowl may be aware of him, as he pounded out 229 yards against Bowling Green in a 30-27 win. That gives him 596 yards and six touchdowns in his last three games. Four carries shy of 200 for his career, Conner is averaging 5.9 yards per rush, a huge number for a back his size.
Boston College almost never took him down at first contact.
Meanwhile, Leonard Fournette scored his first college touchdown at LSU, finishing it with a Heisman pose. He’s not close to Gurley’s legitimate campaign, but Fournette’s 13 carries for 92 yards were a product of a running back playing more relaxed and seeing the field better.
A healthier Mike Davis rushed for 101 yards against East Carolina and could re-establish himself as a Doak Walker contender with a big game against Georgia.
Jonathan Williams (143 yards, one TD) and Alex Collins (131 yards, three TDs) claimed their share of the pie in Arkansas’ feeding frenzy against Nicholls State.
Auburn’s Cameron Artis-Payne, not on the 55-player watch list, notched his second 100-yard game of the season against San Jose State.
Mississippi State’s Josh Robinson was the only other conference player to top 1oo rushing yards, while Vanderbilt’s Jerron Seymour missed a second consecutive game due to injury.
Here are my weekly Top 10 rankings for the Doak Walker Award.
| Player | Buzz | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Todd Gurley, Georgia | Gurley had a tremendous weekend sitting on the couch as fans relished his performance against Clemson. In other words, he stayed healthy. | 1 |
| 2. Ameer Abdullah, Nebraska | Abdullah rushed for just 54 yards in a near-upset to McNeese State, but his 58-yard touchdown reception was the game-winner and the highlight of the weekend. | 4 |
| 3. James Conner, Pitt | Connor rushed for 214 yards at Boston College, helping the Panthers to a big 30-20 win and baffling the Eagles. | 6 |
| 4. T.J. Yeldon, Alabama | Yeldon clearly wasn’t expecting a handoff from Blake Sims, but his fault or not, another goal-line fumble doesn’t help his reputation. He produced 61 yards on eight touches Saturday. | 3 |
| 5. Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin | Gordon managed just 38 rushing yards on 17 carries as Western Illinois realized the Badgers have zero passing game, but he entered the game with three career catches and added four. | 2 |
| 6. Duke Johnson, Miami | Johnson carried nine times for 97 yards and a touchdown against Florida A&M, topping 2,000 career rushing yards. | 7 |
| 7. Tevin Coleman, Indiana | Coleman and Indiana had the week off. | 8 |
| 8. Shock Linwood, Baylor | Linwood, like many of the top running backs this week, struggled on the ground, but supplemented it with two catches for 53 yards. | 5 |
| 9. Javorius Allen, USC | Allen rushed for 154 yards at Stanford. Granted, the Cardinal defense isn’t as good as it was last year, but that’s an impressive number. | — |
| 10. Aaron Jones, UTEP | The current NCAA rushing leader added 147 rushing yards and two touchdowns against Texas Tech in a near upset. | 10 |
Dropped Out: Byron Marshall, Oregon (No. 9).
Marshall managed just 45 yards of total offense on eight touches. Oregon’s running game is Top 10 in the country, but expect a different star every week. This week’s standout, freshman Royce Freeman, totaled 101 yards of offense and two touchdowns on 15 touches. And that’s against Michigan State’s touted defense.
Travis Tyner (15 touches, 40 yards), also on the Doak Walker Award watch list, fared worse than Marshall.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
