FSU Football: Is Cam Akers being overhyped entering 2019?

FSU Football knows who their starting running back will be for the 2019 season – someone who knows he needs to show up much more than he did in 2018.

With just over one month to go until FSU football actually kicks things off for the 2019 season, the end of July is traditionally time when many of the top awards from across the country release their annual watch list – loosely translated into the players that are being looked at to possibly win that award in the upcoming season.

Entering this week, a total of four Seminoles were placed on various list – with one of them being named twice as running back Cam Akers enters his junior year on the watch lists for both the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top back while also being on the watch list for the Maxwell Award as college football’s best player.

Now, there is no question that Akers has had a career in Tallahassee that has been pretty much up and down – and if this was the summer of 2018 all over again after what he did as a true freshman in gaining over 1,000 yards to set the freshman record for FSU football, there would be no question about those lists.

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However, and I know this is going to stir up the FSU Twitter army to no end, but after what we saw last season there is one question: how in the world could Akers not only be watched as the top running back in college football but also the game’s top player?

Don’t get me wrong – I think Akers has the potential to be a game breaker for the Seminoles who can help with the rebuild under second year head coach Willie Taggart. That being said, what took place last season can not just be blamed on the God awful offensive line…Akers clearly backtracked in his sophomore season.

Stats wise, Akers ran the ball 161 times for a total of 706 yards on the season – numbers that were clearly padded when you consider three of those carries totaled 198 yards. Take those out and you go from someone averaging four and a half yards each carry to someone just over three yards on average every touch of the ball.

Take out an 85 yard run against Virginia Tech and he ran the ball a total of 13 times for…MINUS three yards. Against Clemson it was 11 carries for seven yards, one of five games last season for FSU football where he averaged under three yards a carry.

Earlier this summer, I asked if Akers was a top 10 running back in college football based on another site’s rankings and was essentially met with hostility from the fan base of the Seminoles as if me even asking was the craziest thing in the world.

After looking at what took place in the most recent season, why would that be crazy?

I am not saying Akers can’t be in the conversation as college football’s best back, but a major rebound from what took place last season is needed first.