Andre Williams Named Doak Walker Award Finalist
By Kyle Egan
Nov 23, 2013; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats running back Ka
Today, the PwC SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors announced their three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, honoring the nation’s top running back. The three finalists are your own Andre Williams(Sr.,Boston College), Ka’Deem Carey (Jr., Arizona), and Bishop Sankey (Jr., Washington). The winner will be announced on ESPN Thursday December 12th at 7PM.
Let me first lay down some of the statistics:
Andre Williams
ATT- 320 YRDS-2073 TD-16 AVG-6.5
NO RECEIVING STATS
Ka’Deem Carey
ATT-290 YRDS-1559 TD-16 AVG-5.4
REC-26 YRDS-173 TD-1 AVG-6.7
Bishop Sankey
ATT-272 YRDS-1575 TD-17 AVG-5.8
REC-24 YRDS-258 TD-1 AVG-10.8
Now a lot of hoo-foo is going to be made about the fact that Andre Williams doesn’t have any receiving yards to speak of. That’s a given. But in all other categories Andre Williams smokes the competition. I don’t have the exact source of the statistic but it has been bouncing around the Twittersphere that Andre Williams accounts for 51% of Boston College’s offensive
Nov 9, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Washington Huskies running back Bishop Sankey (25) stiff arms Colorado Buffaloes linebacker Addison Gillam (44) during the game at Husky Stadium. Washington defeated Colorado 59-7. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
production. I don’t think either of those running backs have even close to that. Actually let’s look at the quarterbacks that they split the offensive load with:
Boston College
Chase Rettig:
ATT-219 YRDS-1636 TD-15 Adj. QBR- 64.7
Arizona
B.J. Denker:
ATT-327 YRDS-2066 TD-14 Adj. QBR-73.4
Washington
Keith Price
ATT-310 YRDS-2662 TD-19 Adj. QBR-71.9
Cyler Miles
ATT-56 YRDS-412 TD-4 Adj. QBR-56.3
This is definitely not going to be an article trashing on Chase Rettig but clearly Andre Williams gets the least “help” from his passing counterpart than either of the other two finalists.
Some will(and have) said that the only reason that Andre Williams has as many yeards as he does is because he gets so many carries. Well look at it this way:Williams has 30 more carries than Carey’s 290 which is about a 10.3% difference. So let’s give Carey 320 carries.
320x 5.4=1,728 yards through 11 games
Add a 12th game with Andre’s average carries(about twenty nine) and Carey wouldn’t even hit 2,000 yards. Yet, all we are hearing is about his endurance with 48 carries getting him 206 yards rushing. In that same weekend it took Andre Williams only 32 carries to get 263 yards against Maryland. Hmmm….
Perhaps I’m being a bit too unfair to Carey and for that, I apologize. I just saw what his coach and practice warrior Rich Rodriguez said, reported by the Tucson Citizen, “I think he’s the best in the country, not just one of three finalists, based on his body of work.”. Consider this an attack on your coach’s ignorance of the facts.
Now, I think that Washington’s Bishop Sankey is a solid running back and that in any other season he would be the Doak Walker trophy winner, but Andre Williams honestly takes the cake this year. Better luck next year…
Other than the whole reception deal I don’t see how you honestly think to yourself “Who is the best college running back this year?”, look at the statistics and pick anybody but Williams. It’s unfathomable. Which player was the biggest workhorse? Andre Williams. Which player meant the most to his team? Andre Williams. Which player has a highlight video set to Super Mario? Andre Williams.
It’s clear as the light of day to me who should win this award. Hopefully the voters won’t get wrapped up in their anti-ACC bias and choose against Andre. He deserves a ton more than that for this year’s work. He put on his hard hat every Saturday and went to work in the trenches and finally he will hopefully be rewarded for it. Now, about that Heisman…