247Sports

Over the last decade, we've seen a surge of freshmen running backs making a major impact in the world of college football.

From former South Carolina star Marcus Lattimore and former Auburn BCS National Championship Game offensive MVP Michael Dyer to last year's stud crop that consisted of Leonard Fournette (LSU), Nick Chubb (Georgia), Dalvin Cook (Florida State), Samaje Perine (Oklahoma) and Royce Freeman (Oregon), teams are more dependent on youngsters than ever before.

Florida freshman Jordan Scarlett isn't in that company yet, but he's one step closer.

Part of the reason is the transfer of the rising sophomore running back and Birmingham Bowl MVP Adam Lane. Florida announced the transfer of the Winter Haven, Florida, native on Sunday.

Lane rushed for 181 yards and a touchdown a year ago, including 109 in the bowl win over East Carolina.

Now Scarlett has ascended to the consensus No. 2 spot on the running back depth chart behind established starter Kelvin Taylor. In just a few short practices, Scarlett—a 5'11", 210-pounder from Fort Lauderdale, Florida—has been wildly impressive, according to Nick de la Torre of GatorCountry.com:

That's huge, because he has all of the skills to be a superstar once he gets his chance to shine.

The former Florida Atlantic and Miami 4-star commit was one of the prize signings of first-year head coach Jim McElwain's first recruiting class in Gainesville, and McElwain's ability to use multiple running backs throughout the year should help Scarlett earn significant snaps this fall.

"You're going to need three guys at least to go through the year with," McElwain said, according to quotes released by Florida. "So what you hope to do is to find that guy that has the hot hand in the fourth quarter, okay. He's still fresh based on what you've done, and now let that guy kind of finish the game. That's kind of how we like to do it. Obviously, that has a lot to do with the development of those young guys."

Make no mistake, the pressure is on Scarlett to be a key contributor from the moment toe meets leather in the season opener versus New Mexico State.

Regardless of what you hear about the progress of the quarterback battle between redshirt freshman Will Grier and true sophomore Treon Harris, the Gators will be a run-first, power team. They're going to establish the run and then work off play action.

With quarterback and offensive line questions, it's tough to simply rely on the passing game undergoing an immediate turnaround, which means depth and creativity from McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier out of the running back position is paramount to the success of the 2015 Gators.

Scarlett was going to be a big part of that equation regardless of Lane's status, but now his development needs to be accelerated a bit in a transition year for the Gator program.

He has the talent, but now he has to grow up and learn the system in a hurry.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93 XM 208.

Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.