FSU Football: Why losing Nick Cross to Maryland is not the end of the world

FSU football watched as a four star recruit and long time commit announced he was going to another school, but this might not be the worst thing for them.

When the news crossed over social media on Tuesday that four star defensive back recruit Nick Cross – a player who had been committed to FSU football since last September – decided to attend the University of Maryland and play for a Big Ten bottom feeder, a collective sigh could be heard from those who are looking for anything negative to say about the Noles or Willie Taggart.

Does it stink that the Noles lost out on a long time commit and saw their class ranking drop to the lowest it has been in over a decade? Of course so and there is no way to sugar coat the fact that things didn’t turn out as close to as good as they could have been.

Is this possibly a blessing in disguise? Very much so and the silver lining comes in two parts.

Florida State Seminoles Football

First off, Cross is without a doubt one heck of a player who – if he lives up to potential – has the chance to be a successful college athlete and make it to the pro game…I mean after all, he was the fourth ranked safety in the country according to Rivals.com in the 2019 class.

Wait…oh, would you look at that? The third ranked player is Brendan Gant, who committed to FSU football and signed last week as part of a Seminoles class that signed six players in the secondary that include two of the top 15 cornerback recruits from last year’s class.

If there was any position that needed help after last year, it was the secondary for the Noles – but let us act like losing out on Cross breaks the class. There are plenty of solid players that chose FSU football and will be just fine for getting them to Tallahassee.

Second, the following segment from the Tallahassee Democrat article about Cross’s decision had me laughing about the situation.

"Cross didn’t sign on National Signing Day due to his parents wanting him to attend Penn State. Cross wanted to attend FSU. It took six days for the family to come to the decision to compromise on in-state Maryland."

See, on this one I don’t know who looks worse – is it Cross for not sticking up for what he wanted or is it his parents for not letting him live is life? I’m not going to get into all the rumors about why his parents (mostly his dad it seemed) didn’t like the Noles, but it wasn’t their life to live – be a supportive parent and let Cross live his life.

But, because of their interference, Cross will be going to a program that has had 19 defensive backs drafted into the NFL since the 1972 Draft – while FSU football has had 26 drafted over that same span and 28 total since the 1969 Draft.

I will never be someone who will bash a player for making the decision they think is best for them, but in this case it comes across like Cross wasn’t the one fully making the decision about his future. The opinion of his family is important, but it’s not his parents who will be living the rest of his life.

With all that being said, best of luck to Cross in his decision. At the end of the day, the sun will rise and the Seminoles will be just fine.