Dalvin Cook had been silent for quite a while, but the Florida State star broke a monster run right when they needed it in the Orange Bowl
Early in the 2016 Orange Bowl, Florida State Seminoles superstar running back Dalvin Cook got going early. He was seemingly breaking off big chunks of yardage from the Michigan Wolverines defense at will. However, Jim Harbaugh largely got a bead on the future first-round draft pick and bottled him up a bit. But when Michigan pulled within five points after a pick-six, it was time for the star back to shine.
Deondre Francois had made a critical error on the pick-six throw. The Michigan pass-rush had picked up their game and forced the freshman quarterback to make a bad throw on the run. However, Jimbo Fisher dialed up a play to his best player to combat that.
Running out of the shotgun, the Seminoles gave the ball to Cook on a delayed counter to the left side. With the pass rush trying to get around outside, there were big holes right off of the left guard. Cook hit the hole with his tremendous burst and then used his speed to get down the sidelines. He would’ve gone to the house, but was just touched to push him slightly out of bounds for “only” a 71-yard gain:
So. Darn. Close. You always hear about stars making the big plays when they matter the most. When Michigan had all of the momentum, this was the play Cook made. That’s absolutely phenomenal and why scouts have to be salivating at the running back.
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What’s more, it says something about FSU’s running back that he was playing at all. With other top-end backs like Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey sitting out of their bowl games, no one would’ve batted an eye had Cook done the same ahead of the 2017 NFL Draft. Instead, he’s out here doing this and making massive plays.