Watching the tape:
Like most great running backs, it wasn’t really fair letting James Cook loose against high school kids. While he is clearly a pretty slight guy right now, his pace and explosiveness is clear. Cook doesn’t have the power that his brother or Zamir White have, but he’s shiftier than both, He’s a different kind of back to both of them. He’s much more Darren Sproles or Christian McCaffrey than he is Adrian Peterson.
During his senior season Cook wasn’t the workhorse that you see form a lot of high school stars. He only touched the ball 100 times on offense so he comes into Athens pretty fresh. He accounted for just under 9 yards per play every time he touched the ball so it’s clear that he can make explosive plays. Those stats don’t really tell the whole story however. As good as Cook was in high school, he really flashed what he could do at the All American Game in January.
His rushing touchdown was very reminiscent of a certain guy who used to wear number 1 for UGA. He read the block, bounced outside and then accelerated for the TD. The second one was even more impressive but this time it was through the air. Cook slipped out of the backfield, found a whole in the defense and caught a low pass for he TD. It’s that sort of versatility as well as the kick off returns we saw that could make him really dangerous at the next level.