Illinois Football: Chase Brown robbed of being on the Big Ten first-team

The Illinois football team had a great year, and the program was led by a great running back in Chase Brown.

Brown has etched his name on numerous all-time Illini lists this season. He is top-five all-time in career rushing yards for Illinois, and he is only 55 yards away from breaking the Illinois single-season rushing record held by Mikel Leshoure at 1,697 yards.

For the season, Brown has 328 carries for 1,643 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also has another 240 yards and three touchdowns receiving. His great season is one of the main reasons why Illinois was able to get to eight wins when we were only projected to reach four victories in 2022.

On Tuesday, Brown earned the honor of being one of the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, which is given out to the best running back in college football. This is a great honor and one that Brown has earned.

Despite Brown being in the top three among all running backs in the college game, the Big Ten didn’t think he was good enough to be a first-teamer this season.

It is a travesty that Illinois football running back Chase Brown is not on the Big Ten first-team offense.

How is it possible to be one of the top three running backs in college football, but your own conference leaves you off the first-team All-Big Ten list?

The other players in the running for the Doak Walker Award are Michigan’s Blake Corum and Texas’ Bijan Robinson. Corum ended up making the Big Ten first-team, but instead of the media and coaches selecting Brown, they instead went with Minnesota running back, Mohamed Ibrahim.

Ibrahim is a great running back, no doubt about it. But you can’t select him over Brown. Brown is literally one of the top three players for the best running back in college football. My hope is that Brown wins the Doak Walker, so the media and coaches feel dumb for not selecting him to the first-team in the Big Ten.

Brown has more rushing yards than every running back besides UAB’s DeWayne McBride. Ibrahim is No. 4 and Corum is No. 8 in the country in rushing yards.

On top of the rushing yardage, Brown had more receiving yardage than both Corum and Ibrahim. He would finish with 240 yards and three touchdowns receiving. Corum and Ibrahim had a combined 130 yards and one touchdown.

For the year, Brown would finish with 1,883 all-purpose yards. Corum would end up with 1,543 all-purpose yards, and Ibrahim would finish with 1,644 all-purpose yards.

The only thing the two running backs had over Brown was touchdowns. Corum and Ibrahim each had 19 touchdowns on the season. Brown ended up with 13 touchdowns. In my eyes, that isn’t nearly enough to put either running back ahead of Brown.

I think it is a travesty that Brown is not on the Big Ten first-team. The coaches and media really missed on this one.