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History says FSU fighting uphill battle against Ole Miss for Cam Akers

The best players rarely leave the state of Mississippi.

Cam Akers
Student Sports

Florida State’s top remaining recruiting target, five-star running back Cam Akers, decides Tuesday at 8 ET. The main competition to sign the Clinton (Mississippi) is Ole Miss. Stats show that elite players rarely elect to leave the state of Mississippi.

Since the turn of the century, only once has the top player left the stat — Shon Coleman, who chose Auburn in 2008.

And over the last eight years, 51 of the 61 players rated four- or five-stars in Mississippi have stayed in state. That is an incredible 84 percent.

But FSU seems to have a good chance to sign Akers, thanks in part to some troubles and uncertainty at Ole Miss.

Many insiders believe that if Ole Miss was free of potential major NCAA penalties, and if the Rebels had shown more interest in running the football over the last three years, or had not hired an Air Raid coordinator, Akers would have already been locked up to Oxford. But that is not the case, and so Akers’ recruitment became a major battle.