Dylan Sampson snubbed from list of Doak Walker Award finalists
Dylan Sampson is not amongst the 3 finalists for the Doak Walker Award, which is given annually to the top running back in college football.
Sampson was excluded in favor of Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton and Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson. Here’s the official announcement:
Congratulations to our three finalists!
The 2024 Doak Walker Award winner will be unveiled live on ESPN during The Home Depot College Football Awards on Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/Uiv9ML9z9W— Doak Walker Award (@DoakWalkerAward) November 26, 2024
Jeanty is likely to win the award, as he’s one of the frontrunners for the Heisman Trophy entering Week 14. He’s already rushed for over 2,000 yards this season and is arguably the biggest reason why Boise State is in position to reach the College Football Playoff this season.
However, it seems like an oversight for Sampson to not be included amongst the finalists for this year’s Doak Walker Award. Sampson has 22 touchdowns this season, which is second amongst running backs behind only Jeanty.
Johnson and Hampton have both rushed for more yardage than Sampson this season, albeit for worse teams overall. Iowa and North Carolina have both struggled to win consistently this year while Tennessee is likely to secure a spot in the College Football Playoff if it can beat Vanderbilt on Saturday to close out the regular season.
Tennessee has never produced a Doak Walker Award winner.
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I dont know much about the criteria they used but sampson is certainly a worthy candidate. jeanty has been a workhorse at boise and has some big numbers but how would he have fared in the sec or big… Im not saying he wouldnt do just as well but nobody really knows and its highly likely he wouldnt. running against the likes of ga southern, portland state, wash state, utah st, hawaii, unlv, san diego st, nevada, sjsu, wyoming… well thats a lot different from the bigger conferences. apples and oranges. he did play against oregon but one big team isnt enough. IMO.
Hate to say anything nice about anything UTV but…Sampson absolutely deserves top3 Doak selection, he’d get my vote for the award, dude has impressed me this year. Admittedly I haven’t seen anything but highlights of Jeanty…so perhaps a little SEC bias.
Any other SEC team that has a leading rusher and rush TD back like Sampson would have gotten a nomination. Wild that he is getting overlooked on every award. I guess he is too consistently great…
I don’t understand it either…Sampson certainly deserves the accolades. He’d be on my shortlist, maybe a lack of receptions? I don’t get it
Same ones that screwed 16
He won’t care when he’s drafted way before these slugs and has a bigger contract
That’s crazy, Sampson has played amazing, if not for him Tennessee has several more losses. I understand Jeanty being one of the nominees, but Sampson has played tougher games than any of the players nominated.
Jeanty wins hands down so it doesn’t matter.
Same ole Anti-Tennessee bias.
Dismissive Han Solo bored wave.gif
Tennessee players continue to get the shaft on awards like this unless they have star wars numbers. And sometimes even if they do have incredible numbers.
Just Win Baby.
Hopefully he’ll be a high draft pick and the massive paycheck he gets from that will offset this negligence by the Doak Walker jokers.