Take Two: Who should have been No. 1, Akers or Harris?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football and recruiting worlds. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

TAKE TWO: Should Jalen Hurts transfer? | Could UCF have hung in CFB playoffs?

In the 2017 recruiting class, Alabama running back Najee Harris was ranked first overall and Florida State RB Cam Akers finished third.

Harris, from Antioch, Calif., looked like a once-in-a-decade talent, huge at 6-foot-2 and 222 pounds in high school and headed for the Crimson Tide, who pump out NFL-level running backs like McDonald’s pumps out hamburgers.

Akers, out of Clinton, Miss., was a phenom as well, mentioned among the best high school players ever to come out of the state by longtime observer Rick Cleveland and that includes Walter Payton, Marcus Dupree and others.

Both Harris and Akers are special, so both were closely watched during their freshman seasons with the Crimson Tide and Seminoles.

Akers ended up breaking Dalvin Cook’s freshman rushing record at the school as he finished with 1,024 rushing yards and seven touchdowns as Florida State’s feature back. Harris was basically Alabama’s third or fourth running back option with only 61 carries for 370 yards and three scores. So it looks like flipping Harris and Akers in the final rankings release would have been the smart move. But not so fast.

Akers was the workhorse in Tallahassee. Harris has yet to get a full opportunity behind Damien Harris, Bo Scarbrough, Josh Jacobs and QB Jalen Hurts, who led the team in rushing attempts. And in the national title game, Harris showed his talent by going for a team-high 64 yards on only six second-half carries, breaking multiple tackles.

Should Harris have been No. 1? Should Akers have taken that top spot? Perhaps either side of the argument could be justified.

“I would say Rivals got it right when you consider the type of impact both players made when their numbers are called. Akers broke the FSU freshman record in his first season and Harris delivered in a big way in the national title game. Now, I'm sure we need a larger sample. But so far it's been on the money.” – Langston

“You have to look at the production. There was a better opportunity for Akers to play at Florida State as opposed to Harris, who was the fourth back at Alabama. Harris showed a lot of his ability and talent in the national championship game, but he’s not going to be the starter next year. Damien Harris is back and I don’t think he’s going to beat him out.

“Harris will get many more touches and he will be a bigger part of that offense. Right now, Akers is the easier bet to be three-and-out, but that doesn’t mean we flip them. I don’t know if I would. Harris has a slightly more special skill set and that could play out. We could see Harris have a Derrick Henry-type of career where he has to wait his turn and then turn into an absolute monster. It’s 1A, 1B. One was ranked first, the other third. It’s just nitpicking. They’re both going to be great.” – Farrell