Phillip Lindsay adds another watch list to his preseason credentials

University of Colorado senior tailback Phillip Lindsay was named Thursday to the 2017 Doak Walker Award watch list, the PwC SMU Athletic Forum announced.

The Doak Walker Award was created in 1989 to recognize the nation’s premier running back.

Lindsay is one of 61 players on the initial watch list, and is joined by nine other running backs from the Pac-12 Conference (Arizona State’s Kalen Ballage and Demario Richard, Washington’s Myles Gaskin, USC’s Ronald Jones II, Stanford’s Bryce Love, Washington State’s Jamal Morrow, Oregon State’s Ryan Nall, Utah’s Armand Shyne and Cal’s Tre Watson).

This is the second watch list that Lindsay has been named to. Back on July 10 he was placed on the Maxwell Award watch list, which honors America’s College Player of the Year.

Colorado, which has produced six first-team All-America tailbacks in school history, does sport a previous Doak Walker Award-winner. Rashaan Salaam won the award back in 1994, the year in which he became just the fourth player in college football history at the time to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season. Salaam also won the Heisman and Walter Camp Trophies that year.

In 2002, CU tailback Chris Brown finished runner-up for the Doak Walker award after he rushed for 1,744 yards and that was even with missing the last two games of the season due to injury. His figure is the second-highest single-season rushing total in school history.

Lindsay is coming of his junior year when he rushed for 1,189 yards (not including the bowl game) and led the Pac-12 in rushing touchdowns with 16. He has rushed for 2,233 yards in his CU career, ranking 13th in Colorado history.

If he can rush for 1,000 yards once again this coming fall, it would be the first time in school history a tailback has run for over 1,000-yards in back-to-back seasons.

He also ranks third all-time at CU in career all-purpose yards (4,029), 22nd in scoring (144 points) and 24th in receptions (93 counting bowl statistics).

Among all active and returning FBS players, Lindsay ranks ninth in all-purpose yardage and his reception total is the second most of any returning running back (trailing Southern Miss’ Ito Smith, who has 100).