Bo Jackson Earns Doak Walker Award Recognition After Breakout Ohio State Freshman Season
Bo Jackson’s breakout freshman season at Ohio State has earned another significant piece of national recognition.
The Buckeyes running back has been named a preseason candidate for the 2026 Doak Walker Award, placing him among the players expected to contend for the honor given annually to the nation’s top college running back. The recognition arrives less than a year after Jackson emerged from a crowded Ohio State backfield to become one of the Big Ten’s most productive young ball carriers.
For Jackson, the nomination is less about what he accomplished as a freshman than what Ohio State believes he can become as a sophomore.
The Cleveland native enters the 2026 season with a résumé that already compares favorably with some of the most accomplished young running backs in program history. In 13 games during the 2025 season, Jackson rushed 179 times for 1,090 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. He also caught 19 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown, giving him 1,290 yards from scrimmage and seven total touchdowns.
Those numbers were not simply the product of volume.
Jackson averaged 6.09 yards per rushing attempt and 83.85 rushing yards per game while handling 198 total offensive plays. His 1,090 rushing yards made him only the fifth true freshman in Ohio State history to reach 1,000 rushing yards in a season, joining Robert Smith, Maurice Clarett, J.K. Dobbins and TreVeyon Henderson.
That historical context matters.
Ohio State has traditionally demanded considerable production from its running backs, and the program’s recent history includes some of the most productive players at the position in college football. Jackson’s freshman campaign did not match the extraordinary statistical peaks of Dobbins’ 1,403-yard freshman season or Clarett’s 1,237-yard campaign, but his 6.1 yards per carry placed him in an important category: a young runner who consistently generated explosive plays without needing an enormous workload.
His most productive stretch came late in the season.
Jackson rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns against Rutgers, followed by 112 yards against UCLA and 117 yards on 22 carries against Michigan. Against the Wolverines, he also produced 166 all-purpose yards, the best all-purpose performance of his freshman season.
That November production offered a glimpse of why the Doak Walker recognition is significant.
The award is not merely a statistical honor. The PwC SMU Athletic Forum’s selection process considers a player’s production, leadership, sportsmanship, citizenship and overall contribution to his team. FBS programs nominate candidates during the summer, while the selection process eventually narrows the field to 10 semifinalists and three finalists before the winner is selected.
Jackson therefore enters the season with an opportunity to transform preseason recognition into something considerably more meaningful.
The timing is especially notable for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes are entering another season with national championship expectations, and the running game will remain an important component of an offense operating in an increasingly pass-oriented Big Ten. Ohio State’s offensive structure requires backs to do more than simply run between the tackles. They must identify defensive fronts, press blocking schemes, manipulate linebackers with their patience, create explosive plays and contribute as receiving options when defenses overplay the perimeter.
Jackson demonstrated some of that versatility as a freshman.
His 19 receptions for 200 yards gave Ohio State another dimension in the passing game, while his 10.5 yards per reception showed that his value was not limited to check-down situations. His ability to create explosive gains in space can force defenses to account for him before the snap and after the ball is delivered.
The next challenge is consistency.
Jackson averaged 7.78 yards per carry at home but 4.78 on the road or at neutral sites during the 2025 season. Against Power 5 opponents, he averaged 5.42 yards per attempt, a figure that remains strong but illustrates the difference between producing against favorable matchups and maintaining efficiency against elite defensive fronts.
That distinction will be central to his Doak Walker candidacy.
The award’s recent history has been defined by running backs who combine volume with efficiency and explosive production. Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty won in 2024 after rushing for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns. Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love followed in 2025 after rushing for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns while adding 280 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns.
Jackson does not need to duplicate those numbers to become a finalist, but the comparison establishes the standard.
If Ohio State increases Jackson’s workload, his statistical ceiling could rise dramatically. His freshman season came on 179 carries, meaning there is considerable room for increased production if the Buckeyes entrust him with a larger share of the offense. Even a modest increase in workload, combined with his established efficiency, could put him in the national conversation throughout the fall.
There is also an intriguing historical connection attached to the name.
The Doak Walker Award’s Legends Award was presented to another Bo Jackson — the Auburn and NFL star — in 2014. Auburn’s Jackson was a two-time All-American, the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner and one of the most celebrated multisport athletes in American sports history.
Ohio State’s Jackson is building a completely different résumé, but the coincidence gives his emergence an additional layer of intrigue.
The younger Jackson’s immediate objective, however, is not legacy. It is helping Ohio State win.
At 6-foot and 217 pounds, he possesses the physical profile to handle a substantial workload while maintaining the burst necessary to punish defensive gaps. Ohio State’s offensive line will influence how often those opportunities materialize, but Jackson’s ability to turn well-blocked plays into explosive gains could become one of the offense’s defining characteristics.
There is no NFL contract or salary-cap calculation attached to this particular development. Jackson is a college player, so his 2026 status is governed by NCAA eligibility and the modern college football environment, including name, image and likeness opportunities, rather than an NFL-style rookie contract. The Doak Walker nomination also has no direct bearing on his eventual draft position, although sustained production against elite competition inevitably becomes part of an NFL evaluation.
That distinction is important in the current college landscape.
For Ohio State, the greater value is competitive. A productive Jackson gives the Buckeyes another way to control games, protect the quarterback, stay ahead of the chains and force defenses to commit additional bodies to the box. That, in turn, can create favorable one-on-one opportunities in the passing game.
For the Big Ten, it adds another elite young running back to an already demanding conference landscape.
Jackson’s candidacy also comes with an important caveat: a preseason watch-list designation is not an award, and it does not guarantee a place among the semifinalists or finalists. The Doak Walker process is designed to evolve with the season, with additional nominations possible in October and statistical performance evaluated throughout the year.
That means Jackson will have to prove the preseason optimism every Saturday.
The opportunity is there.
He already has 1,090 rushing yards, seven touchdowns from scrimmage and a place in Ohio State’s freshman record book. Now the expectations have changed. He is no longer an emerging player trying to establish himself in the Buckeyes’ rotation. He is a nationally recognized running back entering the season with legitimate award expectations.
And that is perhaps the most important development of all.
A year ago, Jackson was a promising freshman trying to earn meaningful snaps.
Now, he begins 2026 as one of the names college football’s decision-makers, evaluators and award voters will be watching.
The Doak Walker Award list has given him the recognition.
The season will determine whether he can turn it into a finalist’s résumé.