Boise State’s Dylan Riley leads FBS running backs with 963 rushing yards through seven games, and Florida’s Jadan Baugh, the September favorite, leads them in rushing touchdowns with 13. No book’s Doak Walker market is listed on ESPN now, so this page quotes no current price.
ESPN’s college football futures list carries 13 markets as of October 25, among them the Heisman Trophy and the Biletnikoff Award, and the Doak Walker Award is not one of them. The DraftKings board this page used in September is below as the record, next to what each name has done since.
The running backs with the most yards
| Player | School | Games | Carries | Yards | Yards a carry | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Riley | Boise State | 7 | 140 | 963 | 6.9 | 8 |
| DeSean Bishop | Tennessee | 8 | 171 | 957 | 5.6 | 11 |
| Cam Cook | West Virginia | 8 | 186 | 923 | 5.0 | 7 |
| Torrance Burgess Jr. | Texas State | 7 | 118 | 889 | 7.5 | 5 |
| Nate Sheppard | Duke | 7 | 153 | 875 | 5.7 | 9 |
| Jamal Roberts | Missouri | 7 | 167 | 867 | 5.2 | 8 |
| Jahiem White | North Texas | 7 | 116 | 861 | 7.4 | 11 |
| Messiah Burch | Buffalo | 8 | 151 | 845 | 5.6 | 5 |
These are the eight running backs in ESPN’s top ten FBS rushers. The other two are quarterbacks, Navy’s Jackson Gutierrez (872 yards) and Army’s Cale Hellums (840), and the award goes to a running back.
Riley plays for Boise State, whose Ashton Jeanty won the award in 2024. Bishop and White have the most touchdowns in the table, 11 each, and Burgess has the best rate at 7.5 yards a carry.
The September board, and where those names are now
| Player | School | DraftKings, Sept. 24 | Now: games, yards, TD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jadan Baugh | Florida | +250 | 7, 763, 13 |
| Nate Sheppard | Duke | +750 | 7, 875, 9 |
| Wayne Knight | UCLA | +1200 | 7, 627, 12 |
| DeSean Bishop | Tennessee | +1400 | 8, 957, 11 |
| Jaylin Carter | Memphis | +1400 | 8, 833, 8 |
| Dylan Riley | Boise State | +1800 | 7, 963, 8 |
| Cam Cook | West Virginia | +2400 | 8, 923, 7 |
These are seven of the twelve names this page listed in September, at DraftKings’ prices as ESPN showed them on September 24, 2026, after three games; that market is no longer posted. Riley was +1800 then and now has the most yards of any back. Baugh, the favorite then, is outside the yardage top ten but leads the backs in touchdowns, with Knight next at 12.
How the Doak Walker Award is decided
Each summer every FBS school may nominate a running back. Before the end of the regular season the PwC SMU Athletic Forum’s board picks the semifinalists. The National Selection Committee (sports writers, television and radio voices, analysts and former All-America and All-Pro players) then narrows the field to three finalists and chooses the winner.
The winner is announced in December during The Home Depot College Football Awards and honored at a banquet in Dallas in January. The 2025 winner, Jeremiyah Love, was honored there on January 30, 2026.
Recent Doak Walker Award winners
| Year | Winner | School | Rushing yards | Rushing TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Jeremiyah Love | Notre Dame | 1,372 | 18 |
| 2024 | Ashton Jeanty | Boise State | 2,601 | 29 |
| 2023 | Ollie Gordon | Oklahoma State | 1,614 | 20 |
| 2022 | Bijan Robinson | Texas | 1,580 | 18 |
| 2021 | Kenneth Walker III | Michigan State | 1,636 | not given |
| 2020 | Najee Harris | Alabama | 1,466 | not given |
Figures are as the award’s own history gives them, at the time of each vote; it gives no rushing touchdown count for 2020 or 2021. Love, a junior, was the first Notre Dame player to win it, and he also caught passes for 280 yards and three scores. Jeanty ran for his 2,601 yards on 374 carries.
Every winner in the table ran for more than 1,400 yards except Love, at 1,372. Riley has 963 through seven games.
Week-by-week calls on college games are on our college football predictions hub. The Heisman Trophy odds page covers the biggest individual award, and the Davey O’Brien Award odds page the quarterbacks. Prices on award markets differ from book to book, so compare them in our sportsbook reviews.
Sources: ESPN college football 2026 FBS leaders, athlete statistics and futures list, read October 25, 2026; the SMU Doak Walker Award site (award page and past recipients), read October 25, 2026; DraftKings prices as this page published them from ESPN on September 24, 2026.