FSU’s Cook, Walker Deserve a Little Better

Ask any rational college football fan and it would be hard to deny how good Florida State running back Dalvin Cook, a junior, or senior defensive end DeMarcus Walker really are.

With the American Football Coaches Association All-American team still to be released, it’s possible that Cook could become a Unanimous All-American and Walker, a Consensus All-American, if both were named to the first team.

Cook has been named a first-teamer by all four major publications to release a team so far and Walker has seen his name on the first team on two of them. Still, it seems as though the Seminoles’ dynamic duo aren’t quite getting all the recognition they deserve.

Let’s start with Dalvin Cook. This season, the junior finished with more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage and 19 total touchdowns while playing against four of the nation’s top 11 defenses and seven of the top 38. Still, Cook finished tied for 10th in the Heisman Trophy voting and behind Texas’ D’Onta Foreman for the Doak Walker Award.

When it came to the Heisman voting, Cook finished behind Oklahoma receiver Dede Westbrook, who had fewer receiving yards and fewer touchdown catches than Cook had rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Cook also finished behind two other running backs in Foreman and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey.

Foreman may have had more yards rushing than Cook, but he did so against a significantly weaker slate of defenses. When you tally in receiving yardage, Cook and Foreman are separated by less than 60 yards. Cook has more touchdowns and a half-yard advantage per touch.

When comparing Cook to McCaffrey, Cook has more yards rushing, more yards receiving and more total touchdowns. While Cook and McCaffrey’s respective teams, both 9-3, have the same record, only Cook’s is headed to a New Year’s Six bowl. Foreman’s team finished just 5-7.

Another head-scratcher when looking at the slate of players who finished higher than Cook is a player he’ll play against in the Orange Bowl and that’s Michigan linebacker Jabrill Peppers. Peppers is certainly a talent player, but for the season, Peppers has 66 tackles, 13 for loss, three sacks and one interception to go with 170 yards of offense, three offensive touchdowns and a punt return for a score. Peppers doesn’t rank in the top 10 nationally in any defensive statistic.

None of this is meant to be a knock on any of the aforementioned players as all are outstanding. When it comes to 2016 however, it’s not hard to make the argument that Cook has been more outstanding. Four of the other five players who finished ahead of Cook are quarterbacks and another is a defensive lineman, making it tougher to compare. When you look at Cook’s resume’ compared to others however, the FSU running back should have finished at worst, fifth.

Walker has a chance to become the 38th Florida State player to secure Consensus All-American status on Wednesday, but the fact that he hasn’t already is a travesty in itself.

After being named a first-team selection by both the Sporting News and Walter Camp Football Foundation, Walker was relegated to the Associated Press’ second team and left off the Football Writers of America Association’s list altogether.

On the cusp of becoming a Unanimous All-American is Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett, whose numbers are in no way comparable to Walker’s. Garrett has nearly half the tackles and half the sacks of Walker. 4.5 or 53 percent of Garrett’s total sacks came against Texas-San Antonio.

It’s also worth noting that the average offensive rank the Seminoles’ defense faced this season was 57th. Compare that to Texas A&M opponents which have an average offensive rank of 61st. Walker has also faced three offensive lines that rank in the top 25 nationally, according to S&P+ metrics, while Garrett has faced none.

Given what Walker has done for FSU this season, it may be hard to find a better defensive lineman in the country. Walker leads the nation with 15 sacks and has come up big when the Seminoles have needed him to, including with a blocked extra point to preserve a 20-19 win at Miami.

His 4.5-sack performance against Ole Miss ignited a 22-point comeback. Without Walker, there’s no telling where the Seminoles might be. Instead, they’re headed to a New Year’s Six bowl.

That’s something Garrett, Auburn’s Carl Lawson, or Tennessee’s Derek Barnett — all of whom finished ahead of Walker on either the AP or FWAA All-American teams — can’t say.

Clint Eiland contributed to this article

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson