University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Dunbar And The Doak
5/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, May 25, 2010, 4:18 p.m.
It is definitely the dead of summer, or getting there, but with college football preview magazines coming out, there's always time to talk college football, or these days expansion. I'll get into my expansion thoughts later, but I've got a leftover topic from the spring that we need to discuss.
Can Lance Dunbar win the Doak Walker? This will be part one of a series but today we tackle that basic question of can Dunbar really win the award.
The short answer is yes. We are going to have to dissect this process a little bit, but it's going to make his path to winning the award a little more logical. First question is can a guy from a non-BCS school win the award?
Well going back and looking at the previous 20 winners, three of them have been from non-BCS schools. Trevor Cobb from Rice (1991), LaDaninian Tomlinson from TCU (2000), and Luke Staley BYU (2001).
The numbers from those three players were staggering, which is what Dunbar must do. If you average the statistics from those three players in the years they won the Doak Walker, it comes to 1,810 yards rushing and 20 rushing TD's. Tomlinson rushed for 2,152 yards, Cobb 1,692 yards, and Staley 1,582 yards.
Not unrealistic if you consider Dunbar had 19 TD's last season and rushed for nearly 1,400 yards. Keep in mind he wasn't really the starter until four games in, so that rushing total could have been closer to 1,700 yards.
The other factor for Dunbar is he's a pass catching running back as well. He had 300 yards out of the backfield last year. Tomlinson had 354 yards in 2000 and Staley 334 yards in 2001. At the non-BCS level, you have to show versatility. Check that off the list.
Next question, can he make through to the semifinals and finals or is it really just stacked for the big boys?
Go ahead and fire up the conspiracy theories about SMU keeping their public school cousin to the north down, but the answer is yes. Last season two players, Donald Buckram of UTEP and Ryan Matthews of Fresno State made the cut to the semifinals.
In 2008 Louisiana (don't call us Lafayette) had Tyrell Fenroy make it to the semifinals. 2007 saw three non-BCS RB's make the semifinals as Kevin Smith of UCF, Matt Forte of Tulane, and Anthony Aldridge of Houston (and Denton....sigh).
I still think it's a slanted playing field, but access is there.
Last hurdle to overcome, and it's a big, big one, is how good will North Texas be?
Dunbar could rush for 1,800 yards, rack up 20 TD's, 350 yards receiving but if North Texas is 2-10 again he won't get a sniff.
Cobb is an exception to the rule here as Rice was just 4-7 when he won the award in 1991, but that was just the second year of the award, the prestige of the award has grown since then.
Tomlinson's TCU team was 10-2 and Staley was the key to a 12-1 BYU team. This is the missing ingredient for Dunbar. He can't do it alone.
If North Texas can reel off six, seven, or eight wins, it becomes a possibility to think about for Dunbar.
Unfortunately, and this is a huge pet peeve of mine, awards such as these, the Heisman, or any MVP award handed out, has turned into a referendum on how good your team is instead of how great a year said athlete has had.
The success of the team will dictate for Dunbar as much as he will on his own his chances to win the Doak Walker.
