FSU football: Thoughts on Malachi Wideman’s recruitment

FSU football had one 2020 commit who chose not to sign during the early signing period. Let’s discuss four-star wide receiver Malachi Wideman’s recruitment.

FSU football sets nicely at 23 commitments for its 2020 recruiting class, but its second-highest rated player didn’t sign during the early signing period in Malachi Wideman.

It’s a recruitment that’s gotten weird as Wideman committed to the Noles on May 5th while Willie Taggart was still the head coach.

The team failed to meet expectations and the writing on the wall was clear that changes needed to be made which took place after the embarrassing loss to Miami.

Malachi Wideman remained committed to the Noles while Odell Haggins was the interim coach. I’m sure that helped along with his position coach Ron Dugans remaining on staff.

Both coaches were ultimately retained by Mike Norvell after he was introduced as head coach on December 8th.

One of the biggest hurdles for Norvell was establishing relationships with the players that had remained committed and convince them to sign during the early signing period.

Norvell and staff had about 10 days to work and make that happen and were successful in getting 17 of the 18 commits at the time to sign early. They were able to get Malachi Wideman to visit the weekend before the early signing period began.

All reports indicated Wideman was happy with the visit and expected to sign with all the other commits. That didn’t happen but he has since remained committed to the Noles while visiting other schools like Oregon and Tennessee.

Here are my thoughts.