FSU football: 3 ways Jaylan Knighton commitment impacts Noles

FSU football met a need with the addition of Jaylan Knighton to the 2020 recruiting class. I discuss the impact he will have on the ‘Noles program.

FSU football added four-star running back Jaylan Knighton to the 2020 recruiting class Tuesday evening.

He’s considered the No. 94 ranked player overall and No. 3 all-purpose running back in the country and the No. 14 player in the state of Florida.

Knighton checks in at 5’9 and 194 pounds and holds 31 offers from schools like Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Miami, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, Louisville, Kentucky and a host of others.

FSU football now has 20 commitments in its 2020 recruiting class which is considered the No. 11 class in the nation just one spot behind rival Florida.

Knighton is the first running back commitment in the class. This is a big commitment for the Noles as he was their No. 1 target at running back and will be a contributor in year one.

Let’s take a look at three ways Knighton impacts the Noles.

Momentum

Man, a week ago it was looking bleak with uncertainty as to which recruits would show up to FSU’s Saturday Night Live event.

Jaylan Knighton was one of those players FSU fans were hoping would because he seemed to be trending away from the Noles after an official visit to Ohio State in June.

It seemed as though things went well with his visit, but before he left the Noles had three commitments in less than 12 hours had FSU football fans on a natural high.

Nevermind the fact all three commitments were big needs for the 2020 recruiting class. As the event ended there were whispers that FSU was in good shape to land Knighton and possibly another player.

All day Monday and Tuesday FSU football fans were hopeful and believing good news was going to come their way as 247 Crystal Ball predictions began to flip back to FSU from Ohio State.

Knighton committed at a live event that had multiple streams with thousands of fans waiting for nearly two hours to see if the his commitment came to fruition.

Knighton is the fourth 2020 commitment since Sunday and the highest ranked player in the class. It sets the tone for the rest of the running back targets as there are only a max of two running back spots left. Who’ll be next?

Recruiting Prowess

FSU coaches have made it a priority this recruiting cycle to lock down the state of Florida. In fact, 17 of the 20 commitments hail from the Sunshine state.

They have two from Georgia and another from Louisiana. Knighton is the eighth blue chip player in the class from the state of Florida with all eight in the top 300 composite rankings.

FSU continues to lock down the state of Florida with 13 of its 17 players from the state listed in the top 100.

The commitment says FSU is still capable of going up against the big boys like Ohio State and winning a recruiting battle (as of now) even though they are coming off their worst season in four decades.

The other good news is landing a player like Knighton makes other blue chip players take notice.

There’s a reason blue chip running back Lawrance Toafili visited FSU Tuesday when he wasn’t planning to just a few day ago.

This is a huge get for the FSU coaching staff and one that could help them stem the tide going forward.

Position Of Need

The running back position is a position of need this recruiting cycle and getting Knighton to commit was the No. 1 goal.

FSU needed a minimum of two running backs in this class and didn’t have any prior to Monday night.

It was so bad a couple of weeks ago, FSU fans caused a commotion after several crystal ball predictions came in for Knighton to Ohio State.

They literally sent messages to FSU running back coach Donte Pimpleton voicing their displeasure with running back recruiting.

However, Coach Pimpleton had the last laugh Monday night on social media.

This commitment allows the Noles concentrate on the few spots remaining while possibly beginning to work towards 2021 and beyond.

This was a huge win for Coach Pimpleton and the coaching staff as running back was the last need not addressed at all in the 2020 class.