DALLAS -- The Mid-American Conference was represented on the 2024 Doak Walker Award Watch List by Bowling Green's Terion Stewart, Central Michigan's Marion Lukes, Northern Illinois' Antario Brown and Western Michigan's Jalen Buckley, as announced by the PwC Athletic Forum today. The award is presented annually to the nation's most outstanding college running back. 

This marks the third preseason honor for both Stewart and Brown (Maxwell and Walter Camp), while Lukes garnered his second preseason watch list nod after being selected to the Hornung Award Watch List on Aug. 1. Buckley, the 2023 MAC Freshman of the Year, reeled in his first watch list selection of the 2024 preseason. 

Stewart earned second-team All-MAC honors in 2023 after finishing the season with 762 rushing yards and eight touchdowns before suffering a season-ending injury in game No. 9.  Stewart's 4.81 yards per rush after contact ranked No. 2 in the nation among those with 100 rushing attempts. His 78 broken tackles ranked No. 4 in the nation despite playing only nine games. Through the 2023 season Stewart's 6.3 yards per carry is No. 1in the BGSU record book for a career. No former Falcon ever rushed for 6.0+ yards per carry for their career. 

Lukes concluded last season ranked nationally in four statistics: No. 9 in all-purpose yards per game (134.83), No. 6 in kickoff return touchdowns (1), No. 16 in combined kick returns (581), and No. 25 in kickoff return average (23.2). He accumulated a conference-best 1,618 all-purpose yards (737 rushing, 300 receiving, 581 on kickoff returns). He led CMU and ranked No. 7 in the MAC in rushing with 737 yards and five touchdowns on 144 carries (5.1 average per carry), caught 29 passes for 300 yards, and returned 25 kickoffs for 581 yards, including an 86-yard touchdown. He registered six games with 100 or more all-purpose yards and two 100-yard rushing games with his top performance coming against Northern Illinois, where he topped career-highs for rushing yards (202) and all-purpose yards (254). Lukes also earned two MAC weekly awards, including Offensive Player of the Week (Nov. 3) and Special Teams Player of the Week (Sept. 11) honors.

Brown is the Mid-American Conference's leading returning rusher after amassing 1,296 yards and 6.11 yards per carry, which ranked him among the top 20 rushers in the Football Bowl Subdivision. On Oct. 7, 2023, Brown ran for a career-high 280 yards and four touchdowns in the Huskies' 55-14 at Akron. It was the second-most rushing yards in a single game in FBS last season. His 21.5 yards per carry broke the NIU single-game record set back in 1989 by Stacey Robinson. It was the most rushing yards by a Huskie since Jordan Lynch had 321 yards against Western Michigan in 2013.

Buckley was one of just two freshmen in the nation to reach 1,000 yards rushing, with the Aurora, Ill., native finishing with 1,003. Buckley averaged 5.3 yards per carry and also finished with 10 touchdowns on the ground last year. He is the 10th Bronco to win the MAC Freshman of the Year award, tops in the conference. Eight of his 10 touchdowns came in MAC play, while rushing for 692 yards in the eight games. He finished the season with four 100-yard rushing games, including a career-high 196 against Toledo. Three of the four came in MAC play.

The PwC SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors will name ten semifinalists in November, and three finalists, as voted on by the Doak Walker Award National Selection Committee, will also be announced in November. The committee will cast a second vote in December to determine the recipient. The National Selection Committee consists of past recipients, former NFL All-Pro and college All-America running backs, media members and selected special representatives. The recipient of the 2024 Doak Walker Award will be announced live on The Home Depot College Football Awards on December 12, 2024.