Cameron Artis-Payne ahead of Tre Mason's record pace, trails in respect

AUBURN – Cameron Artis-Payne is the Rodney Dangerfield of Auburn football.

He gets no respect.

Nothing Artis-Payne does seems to earn him any adulation from a fan base that has set its eyes squarely on Roc Thomas, all the while ignoring a senior who is ahead of Tre Mason's program record setting pace of a year ago.

"I feel like my numbers are very underappreciated; I'll say it that way," Artis-Payne said. "I'm a stats guy so I'm just talking about with other players. When I look at my stats and I can see different stuff, that I can point out, I feel like I'm underappreciated a little bit."

Artis-Payne's 151 carries lead the SEC and is 13th nationally despite playing one less game than 10 of the players ahead of him and he's gone for 831 yards and six touchdowns. His 118.7 yards per game ranks second in the SEC and 18th nationally.

By comparison, Mason had 119 carries for 693 yards and eight touchdowns through the first seven games of last season, ranking 26th nationally with 99 yards per game.

"He's a tough guy. He' s very reliable," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said of Artis-Payne. "He makes those tough yards inside. He's gotten better at bouncing things when they're there on the perimeter and he's one of those guys that he's a good blocker, he's a good pass protector, a good pass catcher and a good inside and outside runner so he's a complete back."

While Todd Gurley and Josh Robinson have drawn far more attention for their on-field performances this season, Artis-Payne has been almost cast off in anonymity. But to a large extent, Mason didn't become a household name until his very strong finish to last season and record-setting performance in the SEC Championship.

At his current rate, Artis-Payne would finish the season with 1,421, topping Mason's 1,332 through 12 games.

Mason is not surprised by what Artis-Payne has been able to do thus far.

"I had no doubt in my mind that CAP could put up those numbers," Mason said. "He's the man right now."

Artis-Payne said he felt his best heading into last week's game with South Carolina and it showed. He had a clearly better burst through and outside the tackles against South Carolina than in the past, rushing for 167 yards and a score on 25 carries.

"I think he did a good job of being more conscious of when it's there to bounce it on the perimeter," offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. "He ran hard and ran fast. … He's as steady a player as we have on our football team.

"You can trust that CAP's going to show up every week. He's going to give you everything he's got. He's going to play hard."

Only time will tell how Artis-Payne will finish statistically but he'll have no shortage of opportunities to produce.

"We have a lot of confidence in him," Malzahn said. "This time last year, Tre was just now coming on. … If we wanted to give (Artis-Payne) the ball 40 times, he's that tough guy that we feel like he could do that."