Where Does Cook Rank All-Time Among FSU Offensive Players?

Viewers across the nation tuned in to watch Dalvin Cook become the all-time leading rusher in Florida State history with a 28-carry, 225-yard, and 4-touchdown performance against the Syracuse Orange on Saturday. It was another dominating performance by the junior tailback who has been the lone consistent source of offense for the past two seasons. By now, he has cemented his spot as a first round draft pick barring any injuries.

As expected, the discussion begins to arise: where does Dalvin Cook rank among all-time FSU players? Before delving into the topic, it needs to be established that including defensive players makes the task much more difficult and largely does not make sense. The two sides of the ball are so different that trying to rank players over each other requires a lot of odd judgments. For now, we’ll just stick to offense.

So where does he rank among the best offensive players of all time?

There’s largely no doubt that he is the greatest running back in FSU history. At this point, he leads in career rushing yards, is tied for the lead in career rushing touchdowns, and has the two best rushing seasons in FSU history and by a wide margin. By the end of his career at FSU, it will likely be unanimous that he stands alone at the position.

But the offense is not just a running back. Florida State has three Heisman Tophy winning quarterbacks who all led the Seminoles to national championships in Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, and Jameis Winston. Winston and Ward are likely insurmountable, considering the hardware they collected in their time.

Weinke is a bit more of a complicated case, and a piece wirtten many moons ago came to the conclusion that much of his success could be attributed to the players around him. Cook, despite his lack of a national championship or Heisman, is almost certainly held in higher regard.

The offensive lines and skill position players around him have not been great except for his true freshman season of 2014 and Cook didn’t start getting the bulk of the carries until midseason. The majority of his record-breaking production came in the two seasons after that, so he is at least better than one Heisman winner.

Receivers are another interesting group, because Florida State legends like Ron Sellers and Rashad Greene fall below Peter Warrick despite holding the numbers advantage. Some of that is probably due to the fact that the latter would have been at the top of some rankings if he had not been suspended for two games during his senior year.

Either way, the lore that has surrounded his FSU career means that he is undoubtedly in the top 5. Saving one of his best performances for the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech to decide the 1999 national championship certainly helped his stature grow.

The criteria of “memorable performances” is indeed one that Cook excels in. Going back to the school records, Cook has rushing performances that rank second, third, fifth, and sixth in FSU history in terms of yardage. Those are 2016 and 2015 against South Florida, 2015 versus Miami, and Saturday at Syracuse.

Any time one of your top games is against a rival, you receive a bit of a bonus in the rankings. That is not even taking into account his total numbers against all of Florida State’s rivals. The fact of the matter is that against FSU’s fiercest rivals, Cook has shone brightest.

Here are Cook’s games against rivals so far (excluding the game yet to be played against Florida):

Against Miami: 62 touches, 588 total yards, 6 total touchdowns, 3-0 record

Against Florida: 55 touches, 366 total yards, 2 total touchdowns, 2-0 record

Against Clemson: 42 touches, 385 total yards, 5 total touchdowns, 1-2 record

That is surely enough to keep his name in fans’ memories for decades to come.

So the tentative list for offense is Charlie Ward, Jameis Winston, and Peter Warrick. But after that, it’s hard to find someone more deserving than Cook at the No. 4 spot, coincidentally. He has the records and the legendary games to be secure with that placement.

Will Cook finish on the metaphorical FSU Mount Rushmore when his time is done in Tallahassee? It’s hard to say at this point. Such an argument would necessarily have to include defensive players, and if there are three offensive ones ahead of him, he most likely won’t make it onto the list. Still, it’s difficult to see how he would not make the top 10 at the very least.

Florida State fans witnessed history on Saturday afternoon, and the next two games, which include a bowl, will likely include some more impressive numbers from Cook. Once his career is over, we can even start to discuss his placement throughout college football history in general. For now however, it will be exciting to watch just how big he makes the gap between he and any potential successor.