FSU football does not own the “RBU” moniker by any stretch, but for much of its history, particularly since the turn of the century, the Seminoles have had at least one big-time producer in their backfield.
Florida State was home to several NFL starters right now, which is not an easy feat to accomplish considering the scarcity of jobs at the professional level — particularly at a position that is dying a slow, painful death due to the lack of financial resources being poured into it by every franchise.
Regardless of where the RB position is going in the sport, Tallahassee has seen more than enough greats don the gold and garnet to have one of the position’s finest alumni groups.
Here are the all-time top ten rushing leaders in FSU football history
FSU football career rushing leader T – No. 10: Devonta Freeman
- 2,255 rushing yards
- 31 rushing touchdowns
- 5.6 yards per rush
Devonta Freeman was a member of the 2013 national championship Seminoles that won the final BCS Championship before the sport’s postseason system shifted to the College Football Playoff, and his First Team All-ACC presence helped lift Heisman winner Jameis Winston to the heights he reached in Tallahassee.
Surprisingly enough, though, Freeman is somehow not the only Seminole to have exactly 2,255 rushing yards during his Florida State career…
FSU football career rushing leader T – No. 10: Antone Smith
- 2,255 rushing yards
- 26 rushing touchdowns
- 4.6 yards per rush
Despite not having the career Freeman did, Antone Smith was able to accumulate the same number of rushing yards in four years that Freeman did in three.
Smith, unlike Freeman, didn’t go on to have a celebrated NFL career. Instead, the Pahokee native carved out a niche role on the early-era Matt Ryan Atlanta Falcons before retiring in 2016 after playing with the Chicago Bears in 2015 and Tampa Bay Buccaneers his final season.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 9: Lorenzo Booker
- 2,389 rushing yards
- 15 rushing touchdowns
- 4.8 yards per rush
Every single season following Lorenzo Booker’s freshman campaign, Florida State won one less game than the month before. That didn’t mean that the Ventura, California native wasn’t one of the most valued RBs to ever grace the home locker room at Doak. Because he most certainly was.
All things considered, though, Booker’s Tallahassee tenure will go down as more unsung than in the spotlight. His highest yardage in a season was 616, though he did have 420 receiving yards that year as well to push his all-purpose total over 1,000.
His NFL career didn’t last long, but Booker was able to stay at the pro level for five years with a one-year detour in the UFL.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 8: Greg Jones
- 2,535 rushing yards
- 23 rushing touchdowns
- 5.3 yards per rush
Greg Jones was one of the sport’s greatest fullbacks during an era in which there were two backfield threats at all times. In fact, Tomahawk Nation even included Jones in consideration for their running back Mt. Rushmore.
“Greg Jones could walk into a room and make people think he was a bodybuilder- his thighs were tree trunks and his arms were bigger than many other teammates, including some linemen.
“Jones was truly a linebacker in a tailback’s body that struck fear in the hearts of defenders everywhere, particularly poor defensive backs who found themselves filling running lanes only to be rammed by a runaway locomotive wearing garnet and gold.”
Jones was a long-time fixture in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ backfield, making one Pro Bowl during the 2007 season.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 7: Sammie Smith
- 2,539 rushing yards
- 15 rushing touchdowns
- 6.2 yards per rush
Sammie Smith played for four years in Tallahassee before a four-year stint in the NFL that included a three-year career start with the Miami Dolphins and one final season with the Denver Broncos. Nowhere was he honored with accolades, but at Florida State, the Orlando native was a star.
Unfortunately, many will remember Smith for his seven-year prison sentence on federal charges of possession and distribution of cocaine from 1996 to 2003. Having left prison and being inducted into the FSU Hall of Fame, that chapter of his life is certainly a memory; but what he did at Florida State will live forever.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 6: Cam Akers
- 2,875 rushing yards
- 27 rushing touchdowns
- 4.9 yards per rush
Cam Akers has a Super Bowl ring, but before he was one of Matthew Stafford’s main weapons on the Los Angeles Rams, he was a Third-team All-ACC RB in 2017 and a Second-team All-ACC rusher in 2019 for the Seminoles.
Akers has become a check-down destroyer for the Rams, and it’s likely that will be the case for as long as his body holds. With an Achilles tear in 2021, it’s hard to tell how long the 24-year-old will be able to stand the punishment the position requires. A move to a more full-time slot receiver can preserve his body for the long haul.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 5: Larry Key
- 2,953 rushing yards
- 13 rushing touchdowns
- 4.7 yards per rush
Larry Key was an early Bobby Bowden recruiting gem during an era in which moving the ball was paramount. In 1977, Key had as many yards on the ground as both quarterbacks, Jimmy Jordan and Wally Woodham, had through the air.
Key wouldn’t make it to the NFL, instead taking his talents to the north to play in the CFL for the BC Lions. That certainly doesn’t take any bit of shine away from the Florida State tenure of the Inverness product.
How could one take the shine away from Doak being filled with key-jingling Seminoles fans anyway?
FSU football career rushing leader No. 4: Travis Minor
- 3,218 rushing yards
- 28 rushing touchdowns
- 4.8 yards per rush
1999 BCS National Champion Travis Minor was a star Baton Rouge product that came to Tallahassee to run everyone over en route to a lengthy NFL career spent mostly with the Miami Dolphins. Minor amassed 4,706 rushing yards, 52 touchdowns, and 62 receptions for 1,344 yards, and 20 touchdowns while being named the USA Today Offensive Player of the Year his senior season at Catholic.
With a Second-Team All-ACC selection on his resume, Minor undoubtedly did his best career worth during his senior season at Florida State. All four years, though, the Seminoles won at least 11 games, with the title being the cherry on top.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 3: Greg Allen
- 3,769 rushing yards
- 43 rushing touchdowns
- 6.0 yards per rush
Greg Allen is someone that Tomahawk Nation’s “Topnole” acknowledged as a must-have on any legitimate Florida State Mt. Rushmore.
“Any assessment that leaves Greg Allen out….well I’m not really sure what to say,” Topnole wrote. “He was before time, but I acknowledge he was probably our best RB ever and top 4 is automatic.”
It’s hard to deny that, considering his four All-American honors and his unreal yards per carry average during the Independent status era of FSU. Allen was, for a long time, the top rusher in Seminoles’ history.
Allen wasn’t there for Florida State’s best days, but he was 100% the best parts of the days he was part of in the Sunshine State’s “star” city.
FSU football career rushing leader No. 2: Warrick Dunn
- 3,959 rushing yards
- 37 rushing touchdowns
- 6.9 yards per rush
Like Minor, Warrick Dunn was a star at Catholic in Baton Rouge before becoming one of the best running backs to ever grace the home locker room of Doak. Dunn, though, took things to the next level during four years of the most prosperous stretch of FSU football Tallahassee has ever seen from 1987-2000.
Dunn was a three-time First-team All-ACC stud who’d go on to become a three-time Pro Bowler in the NFL after entering the league as the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1997. Everywhere he went, Dunn was a top guy; done in the shadow of his mother’s murder two days after he turned 18.
Just like Allen before him, Dunn held the all-time rushing record. In Dunn’s case, that lasted until the program’s first-ever 4,000-yard rusher…
FSU football career rushing leader No. 1: Dalvin Cook
- 4,464 rushing yards
- 46 rushing touchdowns
- 6.5 yards per rush
Soaring past every other previous Florida State rusher was Dalvin Cook, who is the lone Nole to reach the 4K rushing-yard club during his time in Tallahassee; amazingly enough, a three-year journey. Even more amazingly, Cook was a backup to Devonta Freeman when the latter was an upperclassman.
Cook surpassed Freeman at FSU, though. To be fair to Freeman, Cook surpassed everyone. And in style, barrelling over defenders like a monster truck in a bumper car arena.
Cook has gone on to the NFL to become a four-time Pro Bowler on the Minnesota Vikings. His tenure in the Twin Cities ended in 2023 before he moved on to join a New York Jets backfield featuring Aaron Rodgers.
Whatever he does moving forward, it will only add to a legacy that is secured by the most dominant showing ever by a Florida State running back.