FSU football running back coach Donte Pimpleton caught a lot of flack a few weeks ago from FSU fans. He got the last laugh Wednesday night.
FSU football recruiting was moving right along this spring and summer. As I always point out, FSU seems to assemble recruiting commitments in bunches to establish momentum on the trails.
There were a few spurts put together by the staff in late April and May where they landed 2-3 commitments.
There seemed to be a lull in June with rival teams gaining commitments with the Noles seeming to fall behind on some key recruits.
The lone position that was unaccounted for at all in the 2020 recruiting class was running back. A position where the Noles needed a minimum of two quality players and they were entering mid-July with zero commitments.
FSU twitter went into a frenzy attacking FSU running back coach Donte Pimpleton’s recruiting efforts on social media(not knowing what he was really doing behind the scenes).
However, that’s to be expected from a fan base as passionate and used to winning while landing big time recruits. Coach Pimpleton didn’t lash out, he simply waited in the cut like neosporin and continued to work.
A couple of weeks later and FSU has two of the best running backs in the state of Florida committed in Jaylan Knighton and Lawrance Toafili.
In a true sign of respect, some of the FSU fans who were criticizing Coach Pimpleton came to show their respects for his recruiting efforts:
Congrats coach, I was one of the guys hammering on ya. Good work
— Allen Kiefer (@Akiefer27) August 8, 2019
Pimp to all the haters who said he “couldn’t recruit” pic.twitter.com/xRB0wfXAOI
— Zach Hooper (@Zachhoop) August 8, 2019
BUT THEY DOUBTED YOU DAWG!!!!! WHO AINT GOT NO BACKS 🍢🍢🍢🍢 pic.twitter.com/RXuoJ1y3sI
— Sterl (@HunchoJaQk8) August 8, 2019
I betcha they believe in coach Pimpleton now. Where are the people that said this man couldn't recruit? Where are they?? One more question coach ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
— Lauderdale_AL (@serv5ive) August 8, 2019
— Nole Life (@nole4life4) August 8, 2019
Thoughts
I had to personally shout out the first guy up there as most will not admit they got it wrong. It’s great to see Coach Pimpleton’s hard work come to fruition at the perfect time.
It was a time when some folk were beginning to doubt this staff’s ability to recruit in general. However, they landed seven commits in just over a month’s time span with all of those commits meeting huge team needs.
The Noles are ranked ahead of both Miami and Florida with the No. 8 ranked class in the nation.
They are in a great spot to be selective with their remaining spots and targets. The only question is who’s next?