Clement claims place on Doak Walker Award watch list
July 14, 2016 | Football
Senior seeks to add to Badgers’ history with top running back honor
MADISON, Wis. — Corey Clement finds himself in a position familiar to Wisconsin running backs, landing a spot on the preseason watch list for the Doak Walker Award.
Clement is featured on the watch list for the second-consecutive season. He is one of nine Big Ten players to be listed among the Doak Walker Award's preseason candidates, which were released Thursday by the PwC SMU Athletic Forum.
Wisconsin enjoys a proud history with the Doak Walker Award, as the Badgers are the only program to have three running backs claim the honor: Ron Dayne (1999), Montee Ball (2012) and Melvin Gordon (2014).
Texas, with two-time recipient Ricky Williams (1997, 98) and Cedric Benson (2004), is the only other program that has claimed three Doak Walker trophies.
This season marks the 27th in which the Doak Walker Award will be presented to the nation's top running back.
Wisconsin running backs have been named finalists for the award in five of the past six seasons, with John Clay (2010), Ball (2011, 12) and Gordon (2013, 14) earning those distinctions.
Also named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award, Clement enters his senior season looking to regain the form he showed at running back before being slowed by an injury last season that limited him to just 48 rushing attempts for 221 yards and five touchdowns. The Glassboro, New Jersey, native saw action in only four games in 2015.
As a sophomore, Clement rushed for 949 yards and nine TDs as the backup to Gordon, averaging 6.5 yards per carry. That came on the heels of an impressive debut season in 2013 in which he recorded 547 yards on just 67 carries (8.2 average) as UW's No. 3 tailback behind Gordon and James White.
The PwC SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors will name 10 semifinalists on Nov. 16 and then narrow the list to three finalists on Nov. 22. The winners will be named during The Home Depot College Football Awards show on Dec. 8.
