FSU Football: How does having no coach affect recruiting?

After three weeks without a FSU football coach, Chop Chat’s Sam Tschida breaks down how not having a head coach affects the 2020 recruiting class.

It has been almost a full month since FSU football fired Willie Taggart as their head coach, and the ‘Noles remain without a head coach heading into the week of Thanksgiving. This is not abnormal, and it would be worrying if FSU quickly hired a coach without properly vetting them first.

One of the drawbacks of not having a coach yet is the negative impact on recruiting. This isn’t abnormal, as every school goes through recruiting woes during a coaching search. For example, last year Miami hauled in the 33rd ranked recruiting class after the sudden retirement of Mark Richt and hiring of Manny Diaz.

Two years ago when Florida State was faced with a coaching search, Willie Taggart’s staff hauled in the 11th ranked class after a slew of decommitments at the end of the Jimbo era.

Florida State Seminoles Football

However, since Taggart’s firing recruiting has come to a standstill. While this is expected, it still is not good for the program. The Tribe20 recruiting is integrel to the future of the program. With the invention of the early signing period, new coaches have a harder time signing decent starting class.

After nearly a decade of signing elite classes under Jimbo Fisher, the last two have been underwhelming. The 2017 class was a decent 11th, but last year’s class sank to 19th after several last-minute decommitments. These are good recruiting classes, but if FSU wants to get back to playing at an elite level, they must recruit at an elite level.

Since the firing of Taggart, there have been a few high profile decommitments. Jaylan Knighton, one of the top running backs in the country, reopened his recruitment. Derek Bermudez, a three-star corner from Jacksonville and Jalen Harrell, a four-star safety from Miami also both decommitted.

Not only have their official decommits, but several FSU commitments have begun to reopen their other options. Josh Griffis, a three-star defensive end from IMG Academy, has not officially decommitted but recently released his top 3 schools, which included Nebraska and Louisville. There have also been rumors of other commits wavering a bit, including Jeff Sims, the vocal leader of this recruiting class, and Morven Joseph, a three-star defensive end from Lakeland.

None of this is unexpected, and high school recruits should absolutely weigh all their options in recruiting. Still, FSU cannot afford to lose some of their bigger commitments, especially in a class as pivotal to future success as this one. It’s not like the current staff has stopped recruiting; the ‘Noles recently offered three-star quarterback Kade Renfro out of Texas, and have been hitting the trail this bye week.

But until a new coach is hired, expect to see the recruiting class continue to fall. The class is currently 4th in the ACC (second based off average player rating), but if a new coach is not hired by early December, that ranking will collapse. In no way does one subpar recruiting class define a program. But stack below-average recruiting classes back-to-back, and the talent level will continue to dip.