Why Ingram should win the Doak (Outstanding RB) Award

ed.- bumped from the fanposts

Not that into individual awards, but if there is any justice in the awards, Ingram should easily win the award due to superior play against superior competition.  Look at the finalists:

Toby Gerhart,Stanford - His counting stats are good, especially the TDs! 

Gerhart is not a receiving threat with 149 receiving yards, total of 1885 yards from scrimmage.

C.J. Spiller, Clemson - Not the stats Gerhart and Ingram put up, he did score a TD in every game.

Mark Ingram, Alabama - You know him and his stats:

Of course you throw in the 322 receiving yards for1864 yards from scrimmage.

I don't think there's any harm in ruling out Spiller here.  I don't see him beating out Ingram or Gerhart.  In total yards from scrimmage, Ingram and Gerhart are basically tied.  So, looking at just the rushing,

YPC

Ingram: 6.2 YPC

Gerhart: 5.6 YPC

Edge is clearly to Ingram

TDs:

Ingram: 15

Gerhart: 26

Edge is to Gerhart, though I'd love to have the time to see how many TDs for both backs were short yardage (i.e. cheapies), which would have gone to other backs on Bama.

Competition:

Here the balance is extremely one sided.  The toughest defense Gerhart faced was ranked #20 by FEI in Oregon.  Overall he faced 4 teams with defenses between 20 and 30 in his season, rushing for 649 yards (162/game) on 122 carries (5.3 YPC).

Ingram, on the other hand, faced 6 defenses ranked in the top 20(!) during the year.  During those games, he ran for 924 yards (154 YPG) on 146 carries (6.3 YPC). 

Once again, the edge is fairly clearly on Ingram's side here.

Top games:

Top games for both players came against top defenses, with Gerhart running for 223 yards on 38(!) attempts (5.8 YPC) against #20 defense Oregon, while Ingram ran for 246 on 24 (10.25) against the #9 Defense SC.  Ingram once again clearly had the best top game.

Worst game:

Here, Gerhart's worst game was quite a bit better than Ingram's worst one, where Gerhart had a game of 82 yards on 17 carries (4.8 YPC) against Wake (not a great defense in case you were wondering), while Ingram had the totally inexplicable Auburn game, running for only 30 yards on 16 attempts (1.9 YPC).  Even though it was a tougher defense, you can't rule this one in anyone's favor but Gerhart's.

Overall:

While Gerhart has the more total rushing yards, when receiving yards are considered, Ingram ties him.  Although Gerhart has more yards per game, Ingram has a much superior YPC.  Gerhart has more TDs, but Ingram played against far superior competition.  Overall, any close look at the numbers shows Ingram has been a better RB all year than Gerhart, or any other RB for that matter.  Gerhart was run to death with a huge attempt count, but he did not as effectively as Ingram.

I think Gerhart might win tonight, based on first of all the fact that Ingram's worst game was the second to last of the season, and second of all because I sense a kind of anti-Bama sentiment in the air.  Sort of a desire to recognize another team's accomplishments, since Alabama has the SEC Championship and a good shot at the NC.  I'd much rather win the NC than Ingram win any award, but In think the overall picture is clear.  Ingram is the superior back.