NEW ORLEANS – The Sun Belt Conference has six preseason candidates for the 2019 Doak Walker Award — annually presented to the nation's top college running back — as announced by the PwC SMU Athletic Forum on Wednesday.
Appalachian State’s Darrynton Evans, Arkansas State’s Marcel Murray, Louisiana’s Trey Ragas and Elijah Mitchell, South Alabama’s Tra Minter and Troy’s BJ Smith were among the 71 candidates listed.
Murray was tabbed as the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year in 2018 and earned third team all-conference honors last season after recording 860 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, while also adding 141 receiving yards and a pair of scores on 16 receptions. He posted the most rushing yards by a true freshman at A-State since Marquis Williams ran for 1,060 in 1993.
Evans rushed for a league-leading 1,187 yards last season even though he didn't become App State's primary back until Game 5, and his nine touchdowns included a 100-yard kickoff return against Penn State. He averaged 6.6 yards per rush and totaled 1,764 all-purpose yards.
Smith, a native of Millbrook, Ala., rushed for 1,186 yards last season with led the Sun Belt over the 12 regular season games and ranked second, by one yard, for the entire season. Smith’s 13 rushing touchdowns were the sixth most in a season in Troy history and were the most among running backs in the league.
Minter led the Jaguars and was among the top 10 in the Sun Belt Conference last fall after rushing for 801 yards and six touchdowns on 183 attempts, and he also caught 23 passes for another 201 yards out of the backfield. He finished as the squad's top rusher in each of the last five outings of the year — accomplishing the feat on nine occasions overall — highlighted by a school-record 203 yards in a season-ending win over Coastal Carolina.
Mitchell, who made 13 appearances in 2018, rushed for 985 yards and scored 16 touchdowns, 13 of which came on the ground, en route to garnering Second Team All-Sun Belt recognition. The rising junior tallied four, 100-yard performances a season ago and averaged 6.74 yards per carry, good for 14th in the FBS.
Ragas led all Louisiana rushers with 1,181 yards, positioning him with the third-highest rush total in the Sun Belt Conference by season's end. He opened the year with a 142-yard showing against in-state foe Grambling, one of his seven, 100-yard rushing performances of the season. Ragas went on to claim Third Team All-Sun Belt Conference honors.
The PwC SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors will name 10 semifinalists in November, and three finalists — as voted on by the Doak Walker Award National Selection Committee — will be announced on Nov. 20. The committee will cast a second vote beginning Dec. 2 to determine the recipient. The National Selection Committee consists of past recipients, former NFL All-Pro and college All-America running backs, media members and selected special representatives.
The recipient of the 2019 Doak Walker Award will be announced live on The Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday, Dec. 12 on ESPN.
The award, which will name its 30th recipient in 2019, is named for SMU's three-time All-America running back Doak Walker. It is the only major collegiate award that requires all candidates to be in good academic standing and on schedule to graduate within one year of other students of the same classification.