Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Watch List Tabs Two Oklahoma Players

Wide receiver Marvin Mims and running back Kennedy Brooks are among the nominees for the award that goes to the best college football player with Texas ties.

John E. Hoover|

Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Watch List Tabs Two Oklahoma Players

The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award goes annually to the top college football player with ties to the state of Texas.

Oklahoma had plenty of candidates, but ultimately only two Sooners could be nominated.

Wide receiver Marvin Mims and running back Kennedy Brooks are on the initial watch list for this year’s Tyler Rose Award.

Mims, a sophomore from Frisco, TX, led the Sooners last season with 37 receptions for 610 yards and set a Big 12 Conference freshman record with nine TD catches. He also led the team in 2020 by averaging 12.5 yards per punt return.

Brooks, a fourth-year junior from Mansfield, TX, rushed for 1,056 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2018 and 1,011 yards in 2019 before opting out last season. He has 18 rushing TDs in his first two seasons and goes into 2020 averaging 7.5 yards per rush.

Earl Campbell, a punishing running back from Hooks, TX, was the 1977 Heisman Trophy winner at Texas and, along with 1998 winner Ricky Williams, is the namesake for Texas’ field at Darrell K. Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium.

Published Aug 9, 2021

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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