FSU Football alums learn pros, cons of leaving school early

FSU football stars who left school early recently will be dotting the roster of pro teams to start the season, while several will be watching from home.

When FSU football fans tune into the first Sunday of games for the 2018 NFL season, they will see plenty of former Seminoles take the field all over the country – including several former players who made the decision to leave school early and get paid for their work playing the game of football.

Some of those former Noles were givens to make NFL rosters when they made the decision to go pro – names like Dalvin Cook, Derwin James and Josh Sweat knew that they had the talent to make  the 53 man unit of whichever team selected them.

At the same time, a handful of players over the last few seasons made the decision without any assurance they would either be drafted or make a roster as a free agent afterward – named like Ryan Izzo, Travis Rudolph, Tarvarus McFadden and Auden Tate among the group.

Izzo and Tate were among the half dozen former FSU football who did get picked last season by New England and Cincinnati respectively – and both of them are sticking around with Tate making the final roster and Izzo not being cut, but placed on the injured reserve list to start the season.

Rudolph and McFadden, however, are among the list of players that could have probably used another year in school but left early – and at this point are out of the league, as Rudolph didn’t make it to the roster for a second season with the New York Giants while McFadden was among the cuts this preseason by the San Francisco 49ers.

Now, of course there is a chance these former FSU football stars could join their fellow Seminoles on a active roster or at least a practice squad in the near future – but it’s a journey they didn’t have to take if they had made the smart decision to stay in school for another year.

I say that, of course, without knowing the circumstances surrounding their decision to leave early – maybe it was for financial reasons, maybe it had to do with being unhappy with the program at the time.

However, it can serve as a lesson to those in both the FSU football program and teams across the country – just because you had a good season in college doesn’t mean you are assured of anything in the pro game and you must be absolutely sure you are making the right decision before going pro.