The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Robinson named to Walter Camp Football Foundation Player of the Year watch list
07.30.2021 | Football
Sophomore RB Bijan Robinson was chosen to the watch list for the award honoring the nation’s top player in college football.
Austin – Texas sophomore RB Bijan Robinson was named to the 2021 Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) Player of the Year watch list on Friday.
Three different Longhorns have won the award a total of four times in its history after RB Ricky Williams first did so in 1998, and QB Colt McCoy did on back-to-back occasions in 2008 and 2009.
Earlier chosen preseason second-team All-America by the WCFF and also named to the 2021 watch lists for the Maxwell and Doak Walker awards, Robinson appeared in nine games and made six-straight starts to close out his first season of college football in 2020. He led the Longhorns with 703 rushing yards on 86 carries (8.2 ypc) and scored four touchdowns. He was also the team's fifth-leading receiver with 15 catches for 196 yards and two more touchdowns. He finished the season as the 11th UT freshman to rush for at least 700 yards and broke the Texas single-season record for yards per rush average at 8.2, topping James Saxton's mark of 7.9 during the 1961 season. He joined Cedric Benson (twice, 2001) and Adrian Walker (twice, 1989) as the only Longhorns to rush for 150-plus yards on multiple occasions during their freshman season.
A native of Tucson, Ariz., Robinson saved his best for last, earning Offensive MVP honors of the Alamo Bowl when he carried the ball 10 times for 183 yards (18.3 avg) and one touchdown, and caught two passes for 37 yards and two touchdowns. His 183 rushing yards were the most ever by a UT freshman in a bowl game, and the fourth-most by a Longhorn, regardless of class, in a bowl game all-time. It was the sixth-best rushing game in terms of yardage by a freshman in school history overall.
The Alamo Bowl marked the third 100-yard rushing game of Robinson's true freshman season, the third-most in school history. Cedric Benson (5 in 2001), Earl Campbell (4 in 1974), Ricky Williams (3 in 1995), Vince Young (3 in 2003), Jamaal Charles (3 in 2005) and Malcolm Brown (3 in 2011) are the only other Longhorns to record at least three 100-yard games as freshmen.
Combined with his 172-yard performance against Kansas State, Robinson totaled 355 yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries (18.7 ypc) in the final two games of the season. While in the last four, he amassed 522 yards and four touchdowns on 47 carries (11.1 ypc) with eight receptions for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
The 2021 watch list will be narrowed to 10 semifinalists in mid-November. The 2021 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, which is voted on by the 130 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced live on ESPN on Thursday, December 9. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation's 55th annual national awards banquet on January 15, 2022, in New Haven, Conn.
