FSU Football: Noles get back to recruiting South Florida talent with 2019 class

FSU football returned to recruiting maybe the best area of talent in all of the country with a handful of top talent being a part of the #Tribe19 class.

For the better part of the last four decades that the FSU football team has been a yearly power in the college football world, it has been because the Seminoles were able to recruit the tri-county area in South Florida of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties – arguably the best three county area of high school talent there is out there.

From names like Anquan Boldin to Marvin Jones and Dalvin Cook to Lamarcus Joyner, the list of All-Americans and championship winners is loaded with former and current Noles from that area – but of late, the pipeline started to dry up for a variety of reasons.

From the hometown Miami Hurricanes closing ranks and recruiting the area more to the previous FSU football administration not making it a priority (and we saw the results that came from it). the Seminoles only signed six players in the last three recruiting classes combined from the area.

In 2019, head coach Willie Taggart lived up to a comment he made last summer to Chop Chat about getting back to recruiting South Florida by signing four players in the early signing period alone so far.

The biggest name out of the group was offensive lineman Dontae Lucas, who is a Miami native and starred at Booker T. Washington High School before finishing his prep career at IMG Academy and had been a longtime commit to the Seminoles since last April’s spring game.

Lucas will get a chance to get some early run for the Seminoles next season as he is considered one of the top guards in the country. With the offensive line a position of need, the Noles also were able to flip three-star lineman Maurice Smith, a Miami Central product, from Boston College to FSU football.

The final two came from Miami’s Carol City High School, where three star defensive back Jarvis Brownlee decommited from the Hurricanes last week after Manny Diaz’s departure and visited Tallahassee last weekend with teammate Malcolm Ray, a three star defensive tackle recruit and longtime USF commit.

The Seminoles can add to the number when Akeem Dent, a Palm Beach County native who has been a long time commit to FSU football, inks his papers with the Noles during the remaining time in this period or during the spring at the latest.

For decades, even during the time when Miami was a relevant program in college football on a consistent basis, the Seminoles were the only program to come in year after year and bring out multiple players in each class.

Toward the end of both previous coaching administrations, the desire to recruit the area became less and less – and so did the wins. I may be biased as someone from the area, but give me three stars from the area who know how to play top talent over five stars from certain states.

Hopefully, the trend continues and FSU football continues to run all parts of this state – both in recruiting and on the field.