FSU Football: 3 reasons not to overreact to recruiting

FSU football recruiting missing on a huge target Friday evening. We give you three reasons not to overreact to missing on Teradja Mitchell.

College football recruiting isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a game, although it takes place off the field and recruits play it just like the colleges recruiting them.

FSU football was thought to be in the driver’s seat for the commitment of four-star linebacker Teradja Mitchell.

They had done everything right:

• Got in on his recruitment early
• Visited campus multiple times
• Got the final visit prior to his commitment

Not to mention they have several blue chip players on the team from his home state of Virginia. However, Mitchell took one visit to Ohio State a couple of weeks prior to his final visit with Florida State and the rest is history.

Jimbo Fisher is one of the best closers in the game, yet he let this one slip away. Is he to blame? It is disheartening to lose a recruit that way for sure. I’m sure there are a variety of factors that went into why Mitchell ultimately went against the grain of recent elite Virginia players.

It’s not the end of the world though. Here’s three reasons why you shouldn’t overreact to how his recruitment went down.

Mitchell didn’t choose Florida or Miami

It could have been worse. Think about it. What if Teradja Mitchell picked Florida or Miami instead of FSU football?

Neither school was in it for Mitchell, but if I were going to lose a recruit I’d rather it be someone FSU has a slim chance in playing.

Not to mention the perception that either school beat out FSU for an elite recruit.

It’s true FSU has made Virginia its second home for top recruits over the past few years. However, Virginia Beach is logistically closer to Columbus, Ohio, than Tallahassee, Florida.

Also, Ohio State has had a better track record of putting players in the NFL the past couple of years compared to FSU football.

Florida’s recruiting is a shell of what it used to be and Miami has the current No. 1 class, but I would bet money they won’t finish with the No.1 class on National Signing Day.

Teenagers make decisions that are often irrational

I’m not saying Mitchell’s decision to commit to Ohio State was a terrible decision. I had folk on Twitter asking how it was possible for him to choose Ohio State over FSU football.

Here’s what I tweeted prior to the announcement:

Looking at that, you’d think the rational decision would be for Mitchell to choose FSU. The pros for FSU seemed to far outweigh one visit to Ohio State. Sometimes kids just want to do something different.

I work in college admissions and it amazes me at some of the reasons teenagers choose where they goto college. A lot of times they’ll choose to drive an extra 30-40 minutes to another community college just because they don’t want to goto the local one that has their major.

Keep in mind, the same irrational decisions have worked in favor of FSU. How many times did Bobby Bowden steal players at the 11th hour?

Jimbo Fisher has proven track record with FSU Football Recruiting

There was all types of talk on my Twitter time line about Jimbo Fisher losing this recruiting battle. “The staff needs to have a total overhaul” and other things like that were tweeted.

Florida State Seminoles Football

The fact of the matter is FSU currently has 10 commitments and 60 percent of them are rated as blue chip players.

Fisher has proven he’s an elite recruiter, yet FSU fans doubt him EVERY year at one point or another. Simply too fickle.

He’s finished outside the top 10 ONCE in seven years, and has brought in the No. 1 class in the ACC every single year he’s been head coach.

Does the staff need some tweaks here and there? They absolutely need to get younger along with one more ace recruiter aside from Tim Brewster.

However, to doubt Jimbo Fisher with the sky is falling mentality based on not signing Mitchell or Taron Vincent is a bit much.

FSU football recruiting will be fine.

Final Thoughts

Jimbo Fisher is a master talent evaluator and FSU will finish with another top 10 class more than likely. They are in the mix for several blue chip recruits and will land their fair share of them.

They’ll also discover new recruits and offer them before most others as they do every year.

This time last year, who thought FSU would land the likes of Joshua Kaindoh, Hamsah Nasrildeen or Cam Akers?

Two of those recruits were committed elsewhere prior to FSU coming on strong late in the game.

The 2018 class is strong with 70 percent of the recruits coming from the state of Florida, so FSU isn’t slipping in-state.

The 2019 recruiting class is already off to an excellent start with six commitments of quality players.

Next: 3 Reasons Miami Shouldn't Be Considered Elite

It’s a long time until National Signing Day 2018, and I’m sure lots of changes will occur between now and then.

Either way, FSU recruiting is fine, so don’t overreact to one teenager’s decision to go elsewhere.