What is wrong with the Doak Walker Award committee?

The committee that is supposed to award its trophy to the nation’s top running back did not even name one of the nation’s top running backs as a finalist.

Clemson running back Travis Etienne was not named a finalist for the prestigious award on Monday, though he was a finalist for last year’s award. Ohio State’s J.K. Dobbins, Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard and Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor were named as the three finalists.

Nothing against those three young men, they are all outstanding running backs, but so is Etienne, who is having an even better season this year than he did last year, in this writer’s opinion.

Etienne is averaging 121.4 yards per game, which ranks seventh nationally. And though Hubbard, Taylor and Dobbins have more overall yards and are averaging more yards per game, it has to be noted that Etienne has carried the ball 132 times less than Hubbard, 108 times less than Taylor and 66 less times than Dobbins.

Despite fewer opportunities to run the football, Etienne has rushed for 1,335 yards and scored 14 rushing touchdowns. He is averaging 8.7 yards per carry, two more yards per carry than Hubbard (6.4), Taylor (6.5) and Dobbins (6.6).

Etienne’s individual accolades are definitely a victim to Clemson’s overall success as a team. The reigning ACC Player of the Year has played in the fourth quarter just twice all season and was taken out of most games after the first series of the third quarter due to the Tigers’ large leads.

Clemson (11-0) has won its last six games by 31 or more points and has won the last four games by 45 or more points, an ACC record and the first time any school in college football has done such since Nebraska in 1972. Ten of the Tigers’ 11 wins have been by 14 or more points.

However, Etienne has still managed to become the first Clemson running back to record six consecutive 100-yard rushing performances, while also becoming the first Clemson running back to rush for 200 or more yards in a game three different times in a career, including two games this season.

Along the way, he has also set Clemson records for career rushing touchdowns and total touchdowns and needs just two to set new marks by an ACC running back and player. He already owns the Clemson single season records for rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and total touchdowns.

He is just 208 yards shy of breaking Clemson’s all-time rushing mark, which has stood for nearly 22 years.

Etienne will look to prove the Doak Walker Award committee wrong this Saturday when No. 3 Clemson visits rival South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. Kickoff is set for noon and will be televised by ESPN.

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