FSU Football: Noles make final cut for four-star Jaylan Knighton

FSU football needs a couple of stud running backs in its 2020 recruiting class. It could be one step closer to landing one in Jaylan Knighton.

FSU football hasn’t signed a scholarship running back since taking flipping three-star Anthony Grant in the 2018 recruiting cycle.

That should change with the 2020 recruiting class as the once deepest and most talented backfield in college football has changed a bit in the past couple of years.

The Noles need two running backs this recruiting cycle and have placed themselves in a great position to land some good ones.

One of their top targets, four-star Jaylan Knighton announced FSU Football had made his final cut Wednesday night via Twitter:

Thoughts

The great thing about this news is Knighton just visited the Noles during the spring game weekend and came away really impressed.

Knighton is the No. 101 ranked player overall and No. 4 ranked all-purpose back in the 2020 recruiting class.

He’s the No. 12 ranked player in the state of Florida which is where Willie Taggart and staff want to really make their mark instead of chasing a ton of national prospects.

Knighton hails from Deerfield Beach and used to committed to Oklahoma before backing off that pledge in January.

Knighton named Clemson his leader a couple weeks later after the decommitment but it looks like the Noles have closed the gap after the latest visit.

It’s likely Cam Akers could leave for the NFL Draft after this season with a solid year which would leave the Noles with Khalan Laborn and Anthony Grant as the only scholarship running backs on the roster.

Technically, Laborn could declare for the NFL Draft if he had a standout season and wanted to pursue that dream.

That’s why taking multiple running backs this recruiting cycle is a must and Knighton would be a huge haul for the Noles.

Clemson still leads the way with 33 percent of the crystal ball predictions, but it’ll be interesting to see if that changes in the coming weeks.