Alec Eberle

Classroom

Alec Eberle is a social science major and is on track to earn his degree in December.

Character

Throughout his career, Eberle has persevered through major injuries while starting 34 consecutive games (as of Sept. 11) for the Seminoles at center.

In 2016, Eberle suffered labral tears in both of his hips during the season but fought through the pain in order to help Florida State finish 10-3 following a thrilling 33-32 Orange Bowl victory over No. 6 Michigan. He had major surgery following the season to repair both tears at once, which is unusual and typically fixed one at a time.

In 2017, Eberle again battled through injury in order to keep FSU’s streak of 36 consecutive bowl appearances alive. Due to his injury, Eberle was forced to sit out spring practice in 2018 and fell behind physically. However, he was able work with first-year run game coordinator, Grey Frey, and help coach his teammates during practice and in the spring game, all while spending intensive hours rehabbing his injury.

Eberle worked himself into the best shape of his life for the start of the 2018 season. He’s hit several personal bests in the weight room and has lost 12 pounds over the summer to get to his playing weight of 295 lbs.

Eberle was selected as the offensive captain for the 2018 season after serving as a full-time captain for the 2017 season.

Community

Eberle has logged nearly 100 hours of community service as an FSU student-athlete and is currently serving his third year on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He is in his fourth season as the head of the Florida State Uplifting Athletes chapter, through which he arranges and helps raise money for rare diseases. In 2017, Eberle helped raise more than $5,000 for the cause by organizing the Lift for Life and the annual Touchdown Drive in addition to volunteering for Literacy Week, Habitat for Humanity, various football camps, hospital visits and high school speaking engagements. 

In 2016, Eberle was one of 12 FBS players selected to the Allstate Good Works Team while logging 31 total community service hours. He was also honored with the ACC Top Six for Service award, which recognizes student-athletes who have demonstrated outstanding community service and community relations.

Eberle has spearheaded the effort to get his teammates more involved in the community, as the FSU football team doubled the total number of volunteer hours from 2015 to 2016 (700) and 2016 to 2017 (1,400) while keeping the involvement steady from 2017 to 2018 at 1,480.

Competition

Eberle has blocked for a 1,000-yard rusher in each of his previous three seasons as a starter, including FSU’s all-time leading rusher, Dalvin Cook, at 4,464 yards.

In 2017, Eberle earned second-team All-ACC honors after helping freshman running back Cam Akers set the FSU freshman rushing record, previously held be Dalvin Cook, and the Seminoles secure 400 total yards six times. He was named to the watch lists for the Rimington, Outland and Wuerffel Awards in 2018 and was also a preseason first-team All-ACC selection.

In 2016, Eberle helped the Seminoles finish third in the ACC in total offense (466.2) and fourth in scoring offense (35.1) while Cook averaged 135.8 yards per game. Eberle aided the protection of redshirt freshman Deondre Francois, who led all rookie signal callers with 3,350 pass yards, five 300-yard passing games, 20 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. Eberle also blocked for the second-highest rushing game in school history as FSU posted 478 yards in the 55-35 win at USF.

Eberle started the final six games in 2015, helping the Seminoles average 34.2 points, 190.2 rushing yards and 429.4 total yards while yielding seven sacks. FSU played in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl and posted a record of 10-3.