The effort to replace all-time leading rusher Dalvin Cook is underway for Florida State. First up for the Seminoles in that effort is junior Jacques Patrick.
During his first press conference of the fall on Tuesday, head coach Jimbo Fisher announced that for the time being, Patrick will be the team’s starter at tailback. Patrick has played the role of No. 2 behind Cook admirably the last two seasons, but may finally get his chance to shine.
With two incoming 5-star freshmen in Cam Akers and Khalan Laborn on top of other returning talented backs like Amir Rasul, FSU will likely adopt a tailback by committee approachin 2017. Prior to Cook, that was the norm for Fisher offenses.
Through two years at FSU, Patrick has 124 carries and 664 yards rushing with nine career touchdown rushes. But how might Patrick do as “the” guy in 2017?
Over three years at FSU, Cook was arguably a once-in-a-generation type back. He was the only FSU running back to rush for 1,000 yards as a freshman and set single-season rushing records in each of his final two seasons while serving as a workhorse in the backfield. Cook left as FSU’s all-time leading rusher and leader in career rushing touchdowns, surpassing in three years what FSU legends Warrick Dunn and Greg Allen did in four.
Because of the nature of Cook, we omitted the numbers from his tenure, but looked at the carries for FSU’s other top backs since Fisher took over as offensive coordinator in 2007. From 2007-13 in a multiple-back offense, FSU’s leader in carries toted the ball an average of 153 times per season.
Take those totals and input Patrick’s production over his first two years and his numbers for 2017 would reflect 819 yards rushing and 11 touchdown rushes. If you take his averages from last season and input it into a 153-carry season and Patrick finishes with 877 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns.
While those numbers may not pop off the charts, they are similar to the numbers that leading rusher Sean Jackson put up in 1993 and better than the numbers put up by Travis Minor in 1999. FSU fans are fully aware of how each of those seasons ended.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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