FSU football: Why Malachi Wideman could sign with Noles

FSU football head coach Mike Norvell is looking for a strong close to the 2020 recruiting class. Malachi Wideman would be huge in making that happen.

All FSU football fans will have their sights set on four-star wide receiver commit Malachi Wideman Wednesday during National Signing Day.

The long time Nole commit chose not to sign during the early signing period after visiting in December and has taken visits to Washington State, Oregon, Tennessee and Ole Miss.

Will he sign with the Noles? No, I don’t have any insider information and neither do most others.

It’s college football recruiting and anything can happen, but I think there’s better than a 50 percent chance he sticks with the good guys just using a common-sense approach.

Florida State Seminoles Football

Wideman will look to play both basketball and football in college and has the longest standing relationship with FSU. He committed while Willie Taggart was head coach, but has a great relationship with wide receiver coach Ron Dugans. He also has a strong relationship with Leonard Hamilton and FSU is the home state school.

Let’s take a look at the competition:

• Tennessee-Wideman has visited Tennessee once, just a couple of weeks ago in mid-July and left without de-committing from FSU. Tennessee’s football and basketball programs are not very good at all. Why would he leave the state of Florida to go play for two sub-par programs? At the very least FSU basketball is way better and Mike Norvell is an offensive-minded coach, unlike Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt.
• Oregon-Wideman visited Oregon a week after the Tennessee visit and also left without de-committing from the Noles. Oregon is good in both sports but why would Wideman want to go all the way across the country just so nobody could see him play in a terrible conference in both sports? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me and it’s rare to see players go clear across the country and stay there the whole time.
• Ole Miss-Wideman visited Ole Miss this past weekend, the final recruiting weekend before National Signing Day. Some Ole Miss reporters believe they have flipped him, but those same guys swore Cam Akers wasn’t coming to FSU football too and were wrong. It makes no sense to go out-of-state to play for a coach that has a terrible reputation in Lane Kiffin and to play on football and basketball teams that have been terrible the past few yrs.

Thoughts

I don’t see the allure of going all the way across the country to play in Oregon. Nobody will see him play and that’s a long way away from home. Both Ole Miss and Tennessee are terrible in both sports.

Wideman doesn’t seem like a kid that wants a lot of attention and he’s not too active on social media. Could it be he just wanted to enjoy the recruiting process and enjoy life somewhat? It’s quite possible and he indicated the final visit with FSU in December went well according to reports. It’s not like he left without speaking to anyone like Morven Joseph, etc.

I like FSU’s chances to sign him, but if he decides to go elsewhere the coaching staff did a solid job of addressing the wide receivers group needs. If he does honor his commitment, it speaks well on Mike Norvell, Leonard Hamilton and staff to keep the talented player in the fold.