TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Jacques Patrick was the quarterback of a state playoff run. Cam Akers won a Mississippi state championship as a 3,000-yard passer.

Meet Florida State’s top two running backs, a pair of former high school quarterbacks tasked with filling the void left by Dalvin Cook, the school’s most prolific rusher.

“If he were a couple inches taller, he’d be a pretty good quarterback,” running backs coach Jay Graham said of Akers, a 5-foot-11, 213-pound true freshman.

“He probably would’ve been one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks if he stayed there, because he throws a great ball,” Orlando (Florida) Timber Creek coach Jim Buckridge said of Patrick, his former player.

True freshman Cam Akers already has his teammates thinking he'll be something special coming out of the Florida State backfield. Melina Vastola/USA Today Sports

Tossing defenders rather than passes always was in the cards for Akers and Patrick. Akers was a five-star signee who rushed for 2,000 yards as the nation’s top high school running back in the 2017 class. Patrick is a 6-2, 230-pound junior who ended his high school career as Florida’s fourth-leading rusher all time. Their hands are better suited for stiff arms.

In Saturday’s spring game, Akers showcased his power and speed while rushing for a game-high 87 yards on 10 carries. Patrick tallied 64 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, running through and around the defense. While either Akers or Patrick ultimately could get the majority of the carries, as Cook did, there’s a better chance the Seminoles will divide carries a little more evenly in 2017.

Last season, Cook accounted for 76 percent of the team’s rushes among scholarship running backs. In Jimbo Fisher’s 10 seasons at Florida State as an offensive coordinator and coach, Cook is the only running back to have more than half of the team’s total carries. He did it twice.

“It was just a weird deal with Dalvin. He could create so many big plays,” Fisher said. “You always love to have a great guy, one guy jump out, but you also know you’re going to have to have a stable of guys.”

Fisher said Akers and Patrick, as former quarterbacks, have a different perspective from most running backs. They'll also have some growing pains in terms of pass protection. That was one of the bigger issues for Patrick as he transitioned, and Akers’ high school coach, Judd Boswell, said the adjustment will take time.

Boswell doesn’t expect it will take much time, however, and he said the benefits of Akers playing quarterback at Mississippi’s highest classification since he was 14 will help more than hurt when it comes to identifying defenses.

“As a student of the game, he’ll have it down,” Boswell said. “He can dominate at anything. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Akers’ five-star clout and spring-game highlights already have a fan base seeing visions of Cook. Early indications from teammates and staff are that Akers will be a special talent.

Patrick won’t be overlooked, however, and he enters the fall with two career 100-yard games. His high school coach said Patrick is the kind of back who needs to accumulate carries over the course of the game so that his punishing style wears defenses down, which happened in his lone start, against Syracuse in 2015, when 95 of his 162 yards came after contact.

“If you see there’s a little space, you want to put your shoulder down and make that [defender] feel it,” Patrick said, “because that second time, he’s probably not going to want to feel it.”

Buckridge enjoys watching Patrick throw, too. In high school, he’d call for him to run play-action for himself, like Tim Tebow did at Florida. Last season, Florida State called a halfback pass against NC State, and it might have scored if not for a pass-interference penalty. (“That ball was money,” Patrick said.)

So with three players in the backfield capable of throwing the football -- Deondre Francois, Akers and Patrick -- is there any chance Fisher will add to that NC State gimmick and incorporate all three throwing?

“That’s a long play,” he said. “You’ve been watching too much ‘Little Giants.’”