FSU Football: Commit Says Playing In SEC Hurts NFL Chances?
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football 2018 commit James Cook visited Alabama this month and didn’t come away too impressed.
Of course James Cook is the younger brother of current FSU football running back Dalvin Cook. It doesn’t look like FSU fans have to worry about Alabama flipping this FSU commit per Cook’s interview with 247Sports Josh Newberg.
Cook spoke on his Alabama visit and his thoughts of playing in the SEC as a whole.
“I didn’t do much at Alabama because I’m not a big fan of the SEC like that,” Cook told 247Sports. “Before you get to the NFL they beat your body up. I wasn’t too into my visit there.”
It’s interesting how the whole SEC narrative is beginning to shift. Wanna guess when that began? When FSU football stormed back to knock off Auburn in January 2014 to win its third national championship.
That win also broke the SEC streak of seven consecutive BCS national championships.
It’s hard to tell exactly who Cook is talking about. It seems like he’s talking about playing at Alabama specifically when it comes to players having their bodies getting beat up.
There’s some merit to that belief too. We all know that running backs have a limited shelf life because of the wear and tear on their bodies.
Alabama running back Derrick Henry carried the ball 395 times last season. That’s an incredible number for a college running back.
Not to mention that Alabama running backs haven’t exactly lit it up the last few years in the NFL although they have performed well in college and were high draft picks.
- Mark Ingram has never rushed for 1,000 yards in five NFL seasons
- Trent Richardson has never rushed for 1,000 yards in four NFL seasons
- Eddy Lacy has never rushed for more than 1,178 yards in his three NFL seasons
The biggest thing for running backs is finishing out the rookie contract while being productive so they can score a huge second contract. Because that second contract will likely be the biggest contract they’ll sign in the NFL careers.
If you’re run in the ground during your college career, you can see the results above which means you will not be worth a huge second contract.
These types of things are extremely important for running backs and Cook seems to be aware of this at an early age. It was more than likely a big factor in him reclassifying from the 2019 class to 2018.
That would allow Cook to get to the NFL a year earlier should that be the case. At FSU football, Jimbo Fisher typically uses a running back by committee approach which saves wear and tear on the bodies of these young athletes.
It doesn’t hurt that Chris Thompson, Devonta Freeman, Karlos Williams Sr. and James Wilder Jr. are former FSU football running backs in the NFL who played for Jimbo Fisher either.
Now, SEC supporters will twist this into their league being more physical, etc. That’s not the case. Really, it’s that the SEC lacks great quarterback play and those teams heavily depend on their running backs to get the job done.
must read: FSU Develops Players Better Than Alabama
How many quarterbacks have left the ACC as backups to go and start in the SEC? FSU football has sent three quarterbacks to other conferences in the past three years that have started or will have the opportunity to start for an SEC or other Power Five school.
Clint Trickett (WVU), Jacob Coker (Alabama) and John Franklin III (Auburn).