On Monday night, it was reported that long time Miami Hurricane running back commit Amir Rasul had flipped to in-state rival Florida State. The move had been expected for a while — some had been predicting it for a couple months — and was all but confirmed a couple days ago when Rasul had backed off from Miami.
Rasul joins a 2016 Florida State class that currently ranks third in the nation behind LSU and Ohio State in the 247Sports team composite rankings. Besides the obvious class strength implications, what exactly does Rasul’s commitment do for Florida State?
The first thing to realize is that since it is a 2016 commit, Rasul won’t be seeing the field until at least the 2016 season. He’ll make a bit more news when the whole class finally signs, but for now, this will probably be the most attention he gets for the rest of the process. Once he gets on campus, the fans and reporters will be able to see more of what the FSU coaches liked in him.
Rasul is a 4-star prospect so he will most likely at least be competing for serious reps when his time comes. As to how he might perform…that’s largely unknown. Rasul is a track athlete as well and succeeds in that sport for the same reason — speed.
His best attributes are his acceleration and how quickly he is able to leave guys reaching at his heels. Looking at his highlight tape on Hudl reveals just how fast he can reach top speed out of the backfield, while also being able to find his way through the holes in a defense.
Rasul certainly has potential, but there’s still a lot of things he has to work on. He doesn’t have exceptional power and his receiving and blocking skills need to improve if he wants to get serious time at Florida State. Fans should not expect something like the Dalvin Cook emergence during his freshman year, because he’s just not there yet. Once he gets on campus and is able to learn the offense, then he’ll be able to utilize his offensive capabilities best.
Assuming Cook is re-instated, the Florida State backfield has a good amount of depth for the coming years. Guys like Cook, Mario Pender, Jacques Patrick, and Johnathan Vickers all still have at least two years of eligibility remaining. Rasul will be added to that group and if he is able to realize his potential, he could be the starter in a few years.
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