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The 2013 Doak Walker award watch list, an award given for the best running back, was released on Thursday and there are a surprisingly low number of Mountain West backs on the list. The two that were nominated from the Mountain West are Utah State's Joe Hill and San Diego State's Adam Muema.
Muema making the list makes sense since he had 1,458 yards on the ground and 14 touchdowns, but Hill was a backup at Utah State and rushed for just 269 yards with nine scores. The Utah State submission for Hill could be based off of the Aggies recent success of putting running backs in the NFL, but with this being a college award that makes little sense to go off of predecessor's past success. Utah State returns their whole offensive line so Hill definitely has a chance to be one of the best backs in the league.
New Mexico's Kasey Carrier and Boise State's Jay Ajayi should be nominated, especially since Hill earned a nomination for much less success in 2012. There is hope for a midseason addition to the Doak Walker list, and those others could be Nevada's Don Jackson or Jon Lee from Air Force.