Oklahoma football: Kennedy Brooks on watch for 2020 Doak Walker Award
By Chip Rouse
Add another Oklahoma football player to the 2020 preseason award watch party.
Junior running back Kennedy Brooks has been named to the Doak Walker Award watch list for the coming season. Brooks is one of 76 players from teams around the country that is a preseason candidate for the 2020 presentation of the award.
Created in 1989, the Doak Walker Award is presented annually to the best running back in college football. No player from Oklahoma has ever won the award.
Brooks played in all but one of OU’s 14 games a year ago, gaining 1,011 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 155 carries. He ranked ninth nationally and first in the Big 12, averaging 6.5 yards per carry in the 2019 season.
It was the second year in a row that the player who will take over sole ownership of OU”s lead running back role in 2020 has gone over 1,000 yards on the ground. He gained 1,056 rushing yards in 2018.
In two full seasons at OU, Brooks has totaled 2,067 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns and averaged an impressive 7.5 yards per carry.
A second-team All-Big 12 honoree a year ago, Brooks rushed for over 100 yards four times last season. His most productive game was in Oklahoma’s final regular-season game against Oklahoma State. In that game, the 5-foot, 9-inch, 209-pound running back from Mansfield, Texas, averaged over seven yards per carry and rushed for 160 yards.
Brooks is the fifth Oklahoma Sooner to receive preseason award recognition prior to the 2020 season. Center Creed Humphrey was named both a Walter Camp Preseason All-American and a Sporting News Preseason All-American, kicker Gabe Brkic is a Sporting News Preseason All-American, linebacker Caleb Kelly is on the Lott IMPACT Trophy watch list, and defensive end Ronnie Perkins has been named to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list.