Cameron Artis-Payne not bothered by lack of limelight

AUBURN -- Cameron Artis-Payne has put himself in rarefied air of Auburn history.

The senior running back became just the fifth Auburn player to eclipse 1,400 rushing yards in a season with his 129-yard performance last week, joining Tre Mason, Bo Jackson, Rudi Johnson and Cam Newton.

"That's a nice list to be a part of," Artis-Payne said. "We had a lot of great running backs come through here and to be one of the only five to do that is pretty big."

Artis-Payne, whose 1,405 yards lead the SEC and are 11th nationally, needs just 68 to surpass Newton and 162 to top Johnson with two games to play.

While he's on a short list in Auburn history, Artis-Payne is not on the short list for recognition as the tip running back in the country this season.

One of 10 semifinalists for the Doak Walker award as the nation's top back, Artis-Payne did not make the cut for the three finalists, which were all from the Big Ten – Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon, Indiana's Tevin Coleman and Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah.

Though the SEC's leading rusher has at least made it to New York as a Heisman finalist for five straight years, Artis-Payne said it didn't bother him not to be mentioned in the same national light as Gordon and Coleman.

"I would like to play against Illinois and Northwestern though, you know Rutgers," Artis-Payne said. "Nah, it really don't bother me. I know we play in the SEC and that's the toughest conference; you can get beat by anybody on any given week. You play a lot of great teams. It don't bother me. I know we're playing pretty good competition over here. I don't know about everywhere else."

Artis-Payne's SEC-best 221 yards came against Texas A&M's lowly rush defense, but his point of SEC defense's being better against the run than those in the Big Ten does have merit.

Gordon leads the country with 2,109 yards, including a then NCAA record 410 yards against Nebraska two weeks ago. He benefitted from beating up on the Big Ten's cellar dwellers, with 175 yards against Illinois, 259 against Northwestern and 128 against Rutgers, and also had 140 yards against LSU compared to Artis-Payne's 124.

Coleman's season-best 307 yards came against Rutgers, but he had 132 yards in Indiana's stunning win over Missouri.