UAB's Spencer Brown On Doak Walker Award Watch List

BIRMINGHAM, AL - The month of July has brought with it a wave of positive news for the University of Alabama at Birmingham's football program.

Earlier this week, an announcement was made that construction will begin this year on the new football stadium in downtown Birmingham next to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, a project that will have UAB football with its own home downtown stadium by 2021.

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Work To Begin On New Stadium This Year

This news comes at the same time that UAB sophomore running back Spencer Brown was named to the Doak Walker Award nominee list for the 2018 season. This honor comes after Brown was also named to the preseason All-Conference USA team, as well as a Maxwell Award nominee.

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The 2017 FWAA Freshman All-America selection and Conference USA Freshman of the Year is one of four C-USA running backs on the Doak Walker Award Watch List, as Devin Singletary (Florida Atlantic), Jeremy Cox (Old Dominion) and Tavares Thomas (Middle Tennessee) join Brown as watch list members. In all, 62 student-athletes were named to the Doak Walker Award Watch List, including 2017 recipient Bryce Love of Stanford.

Brown had six 100-yard rushing performances in 2017, five of which came against league opponents. His 102.2 rushing yards per game were the third most in the nation among freshmen - only behind Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin) and AJ Dillon (Boston College)- and it took Brown just eight games to break Jordan Howard's UAB freshman rushing record, and he did so with a career night at Southern Miss when he ran for 209 yards to lead the Blazers to a 30-12 victory over the Golden Eagles. In the process, he became just the seventh player in program history to rush for over 200 yards in a game.

The UAB offense returns 10 starters in 2018, which is tied for the most in the nation with Florida and Michigan State. Brown will run behind a veteran offense line that returns four starters and a fifth in Rishard Cook who made four starts a year ago.

Photo courtesy of UAB Athletics

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