FSU Alums: James Wilder Jr. encounters difficult season in CFL
By Jason Parker
After a stellar career for FSU and a cup of coffee in the NFL, the Toronto Argonauts star running back is finding trouble after a two season decent run.
While the FSU football team is still making a push to get back to the postseason after what took place in 2018, there is one former star for the Seminoles who knows that he will have time off in a couple weeks – and it has everything to do with a poor season by his team that plays their football north of the border.
James Wilder Jr., who had two very good seasons as a member of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, is finding out how the other half lives in a season in which the Argos were eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago – just two seasons after they brought home the Grey Cup as the champs of the league.
The former FSU star and member of the 2013 national title team was the rookie of the year during his first season in 2017 when he averaged over seven yards a carry and ran for over 872 yards in helping Toronto win the title.
A season later, Wilder missed four games but still ran for nearly 700 yards and had a career best number of receptions in a season. This year, Wilder has played in just 11 games for the Argos and had a career low in the number of carries for a while at the same time that he has run for just 444 yards with a single touchdown.
Toronto now sits with a 3-13 record on the season and was eliminated from post season contention a long time ago for the second straight year – but with two games left, including their home finale of 2019 next weekend, Wilder said a few weeks ago that they are still important from a learning aspect.
"“… I think (the final games) will show what type of character is on this team moving forward. Are we going to be lackadaisical in practice or are we going to be men and professional athletes and go out there and perform each week as if there were still playoff games.”"
Wilder had his season high in both carries and yards in the team’s last win two weeks ago – and if that turns into a trend, both he and the team can be in a positive state entering the postseason.