Football | 10/11/2023 8:18:00 PM
Utah Tech junior wide receiver
Keith Davis and fifth-year running back
Ronnie Walker Jr. were both named to the 2023 Comeback of the Year watch list on Wednesday.
The updated watch list, which features 49 college football student-athletes from 42 different schools, is sponsored by the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA), in association with The Associated Press and the Fiesta Bowl Organization.
Davis (6-1, 190; San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch HS/Arizona State) has started in three of the six games he has played this season, during which he has made seven receptions for 157 yards (22.43 ypc). He tallied a season-best 61 yards on two catches at Missouri State (9/23), and caught his first touchdown of the year in last Saturday's home win over Stephen F. Austin, against which we caught two passes for 32 yards.
Davis, who missed the entire 2022 season due to injury, enjoyed a breakout 2021 season when he led Utah Tech with 479 receiving yards on 35 catches and two touchdowns. In all, Davis has caught at least one pass in 15 of 17 career games as a Trailblazer.
Walker Jr. (5-10, 210; Hopewell, Va./Hopewell HS/Indiana/Virginia), who missed the 2022 season due to injury while he was at Virginia, has started in all six games in his first season as a Trailblazer and has led the team in rushing in five of those six starts.
He has rushed for 50 or more yards in four of those outings, highlighted by a season-high 83 yards on 20 carries at Colorado State (9/30). Walker Jr. leads the team with 352 yards on 84 carries and has two rushing touchdowns to his credit on the year, which came in consecutive games at Northern Arizona (9/16) and at Missouri State (9/23).
Utah Tech is one of seven schools to have multiple selections make the updated list, and is only one of five NCAA Division-I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools represented on the list.
Since 2018, the Comeback Player of the Year Award has recognized college football student-athletes from all divisions of college football for overcoming injury, illness or other circumstances. At the end of each season, a vote by a panel of college football writers, editors and sports information directors will determine the three recipients of the Comeback Player of the Year Award, which is honored at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.
