Coleman Runs His Way Onto Doak Walker Award Watch List

Unfortunate because Walker, at age 71 and an earnest athlete to the end, died following a skiing accident in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, that left him paralyzed and claimed his life a short time later.

The great Doak simply came flying down the hillside and didn't see the change in terrain until too late, went airborne and came down in a manner that was too much for his aging body to withstand.

Now comes Coleman, who's not unlike Walker in that he has to be always in motion with a football in his hands, taking on tacklers up the middle, beating them around the corner and sometimes leaping over them with reckless abandon.

Walker had the running trophy named after him following his SMU heroics and a six-year NFL career with the Detroit Lions that ended basically because he needed to devote more time to his outside business interests.

But Texas never lost track of him and the running back award was created in his honor and would first go to Lewis.

A Seattle native, Lewis, even with a knee injury, enjoyed a 1,279 rushing season as a Husky senior that helped put his team in the 1991 Rose Bowl against Iowa. He played two NFL seasons for the Denver Broncos before that troublesome knee forced him into retirement.

The 5-foot-9, 223-pound Coleman, who played his first two seasons at Arizona before transferring to the UW, emerges from a 1,053-yard rushing season looking for a lot more. He's remade his body and has a much better offensive line to run behind.

He's as good a candidate as any, trying to join the list of previous winners who include USC's Reggie Bush, TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson, Boise State's Ashton Jeanty and current Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III when he was at Michigan State.

Among the 103 current candidates is another one-time UW running back, Will Nixon, who spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons in Montlake and now plays for Syracuse.

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