BOONE, N.C. — App State running back
Camerun Peoples has been named to the watch list for the 2021 Maxwell Award, which recognizes the most outstanding player in college football.
In 15 career games, Peoples has totaled 1,311 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns while averaging 7.0 yards per carry. Despite making just five starts last season, he rushed for a league-high 1,124 yards (10th nationally) with 12 touchdowns (13th nationally) and averaged 6.7 yards per rush (making him one of just 14 players nationally to rush for 500-plus yards with a per-carry average that high).
In his first full season after redshirting in 2018 and missing almost the entire 2019 season because of an injury, Peoples in 2020 tied Buffalo's Jaret Patterson for the FBS lead in rushes of 50 or more yards (five) and led the nation with four rushes of 60-plus yards.
With App State looking to make it nine straight years producing a 1,000-yard rusher — now the longest streak among FBS programs — Peoples reached that plateau by running for an NCAA bowl-record 317 yards and five touchdowns on just 22 carries in the Myrtle Beach Bowl victory against North Texas.
The Maxwell Award has been presented to the national college player of the year since 1937 and is named in honor of Robert "Tiny" Maxwell, a former standout at the Swarthmore College and a renowned sports writer and football official.
