Florida State’s Cam Akers is college football’s next superstar running back

Florida State’s Cam Akers is the next superstar running back that will take college football by storm.

A superstar can blossom at any moment in college football, but to do so as a freshman is rare. As the Florida State Seminoles learned this past year, the future of their run game is something that has the potential to be extra special. In a strange season riddled by a hurricane and injuries, there was a bright spot for the program, Cam Akers.

As a freshman Akers came into Tallahassee as one of the most highly touted recruits ever in the history of the program. Even before he stepped foot on Doak Campbell Stadium, Akers had huge expectations placed upon him.

With one of the strangest seasons in program history taking place, Akers delivered in just his first year. The freshman running back finished with over 1,000 yards on the ground and found the end zone and impressive seven times.

He set the program’s freshman rushing record, which was set by Dalvin Cook, who had just departed the program for the NFL after a successful tenure. With a record already to his name and plenty of more carries coming his way, Akers has a chance to have an even more special career.

At 5’11” and 213 pounds, Akers still has room to grow and he’s already an incredibly physical runner. His physical running style makes it tough to bring him down on first contact and if he gets into the open field, he uses great speed to break open long runs.

With a healthy Deondre Francois back under center and a new offense under head coach Willie Taggart, Akers should see his touches increase in 2018. That’s going to give him more opportunities to touch the ball and his numbers should skyrocket for a team that should have a strong turnaround after a disappointing season last year.

The opportunity to become “the” running back in college football is up for grabs. With Saquon Barkley in the NFL now, Akers has a chance to claim the throne for the remainder of his college career.

Between Akers and Stanford’s Bryce Love among others, there could be a strong debate over who the best running back in college football is. That debate wasn’t all that strong with Barkley running over defenders the last couple of seasons.

With the strong tradition and history that the Seminoles have, coming in as one of the best offensive recruits ever carries a lot pressure. Perhaps that pressure was lessened by all the stories surrounding the Seminoles last season, but Akers didn’t let that distract him.

The Heisman Trophy has long been a quarterback trophy, but running backs can and have won the award. It takes a special season for a running back to be able to come away with the richest hardware that college athletics has to offer to an individual.

There are plenty of great running backs that don’t even come close to sniffing the Heisman conversation. That’s how elite a runner truly has to be for recognition to take place. Perhaps it’s just the nature of how voting takes place and the bias toward the quarterback spot, but a running back has to be at his best and then some.

It takes a special season, records and a legacy in place that people will remember for generations. Akers took the right steps to building that legacy his first season with the Seminoles. If he can put the program on his back as a sophomore, he could put himself in that conversation.

That isn’t to say he’ll be in that hunt this year, but taking a huge leap into becoming that superstar will put him on the right map moving forward. College football has seen plenty of great running backs lately with Barkley, Leonard Fournette, Ezekiel Elliott and others putting up impressive displays each Saturday. It’s time for Akers to join that group along with others that have restored the running back position.