Now that the football season is over (at least, for Florida State), fan attention diverts to the recruiting trail, where the one promise of good news remains.
Head coach Willie Taggart and staff are going hard on the trail in hopes of grabbing a top-10 class. Given their results on short notice in 2018, most are expecting an above average close for the cycle.
They do not have unlimited time to do so. The Early Signing Day lands on Dec. 19 this year, giving the Seminoles less than a month left to lock down their current commits and make a good impression on their remaining targets. This will likely be canary-in-the-coal mine situation.
If the flips start happening and FSU cannot close on certain players, Taggart’s tenure in Tallahassee will be brief. If the opposite happens, he gives himself a chance to build toward his vision.
If you are wondering how the bad season might affect Florida State recruiting, we examined that earlier this month.
We will continue to provide daily coverage of recruiting as the day approaches. That includes this piece, which is a new format from our past articles on the subject. We will attempt to predict how Florida State finishes the 2019 class and update this piece as we get more information. We will also provide notes at the bottom that either link to sources or explain what we have heard about the players listed.
Check out our predictions on the Dec. 4 piece here.
Dec. 10, 2018
Subtract
4-star DT Derick Hunter
Add
4-star G Will Putnam
4-star S Raymond Woodie III
4-star JUCO G Desmond Bland
3-star LB Kevon Glenn
3-star DT Malcolm Ray
3-star CB Jarvis Brownlee
3-star T Ira Henry
3-star JUCO T Jay Williams
Projected Score: 268.45 (11th in 2018)
Notes and Information
- We removed Renardo Green from “Subtract” list. The retirement of Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was more impactful than previously thought. Green has decided to shut down his recruitment and will sign with Florida State. The staff still wants another cornerback and maybe two if the numbers work out that way. Marcus Banks and Jarvis Brownlee remain the top targets, with Brownlee looking more likely at the moment. But there is still plenty of time for that to change.
- Speaking of Banks: Texas A&M recently lost its best cornerback recruit (Jeffery Carter) to Alabama. That now leaves the Aggies with just one true cornerback at a position of need. Expect them to turn up the heat on Banks, who lives less than two hours from College Station. We have removed Banks from the “Add” list.
- The Michigan 247Sports site is claiming that Kalen DeLoach is “wide open” heading into Early Signing Day. While Michigan has made this a battle, we fully expect DeLoach to sign with FSU. He seems to have a tendency to tell Michigan what they want to hear.
- Dontae Lucas is solid to FSU. He’s building hype for his announcement by saying he has a “top 3”. While there might be some talks behind the scenes with Florida and Miami, neither are expecting him to flip.
- We swapped Nick Pendley with Ira Henry. Neither have set up official visits to Florida State yet, but Henry did call Florida State a dream offer. We will see how serious he is about that.
- Quashon Fuller tweeted that he was cancelling his official visit to Florida State this weekend. That’s because he will instead be using an unofficial visit this weekend, and save his official visit for later.
- 5-star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and 4-star linebacker Derick Hall are two players whose recruitments will go down to the wire. While we are not confident enough to predict either of them to Florida State, realize that the Seminoles are very much contenders in each recruitment.
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