FSU football: Chances of landing Oklahoma transfer OT Stacey Wilkins

One of the biggest needs for FSU football over the past few years has been quality offensive linemen. Slowly but surely, the coaching staff has been plugging the hole in the boat.

One way they’ve gone about it is taking players from the transfer portal. Notre Dame transfer Dillan Gibbons enrolled at FSU a couple of days ago and we saw the huge push for Marshall transfer Cain Madden, who ultimately chose to commit to Notre Dame.

The coaching staff has found another offensive line target that could be a better overall move for the program than if they had landed Madden.

Oklahoma offensive tackle Stacey Wilkins has entered the transfer portal, and the Noles have been in contact. According to Josh Newberg of Noles247, Wilkins will be visiting Tallahassee next week.

Wilkins was the No. 174 player overall and No. 15 offensive tackle nationally in the 2019 recruiting cycle.

We’ve seen this movie before with Cain Madden, and it didn’t work out in favor of the Noles, but this situation is totally different.

Stacey Wilkins has FOUR years of eligibility left and will not be declaring for the NFL Draft after the 2021 season. Wilkins is originally from Arkansas, and Mike Norvell recruited him while he was at Memphis, so there’s at least some sort of relationship there, unlike with Madden.

The schools in the mix for Wilkins out of high school other than Oklahoma appeared to be Alabama, Arkansas, and LSU.

Of course, other schools could come calling, but the Noles appeared to have Madden wrapped up before Notre Dame got in the picture.

LSU fired their offensive line coach recently and made a new hire, who ironically was the offensive line coach at Arkansas. Does Alabama have room to take Wilkins now? Arkansas is the home team, but they are hiring a new offensive line coach to replace the guy they lost to LSU. However, their head coach Sam Pittman is an offensive line coach by trade. Florida might be interested as well.

Chance of Landing Him

I like FSU’s chances of landing Stacey Wilkins. He still needs to develop, and FSU is a place that could offer early playing time. Mike Norvell having a prior relationship with him should help and I would expect the Noles to go all out for a couple of reasons.

They need offensive tackles, but also need to avoid the perception of going all out for offensive linemen in the transfer portal and not landing them.

I expect FSU to get Wilkins on campus next week, and try to get him to end his recruitment before leaving campus. FSU is the first place to secure a visit, which is a good sign. I’m going to put my prediction at 60 percent they land him. If they can’t get him to shut it down after visiting, I’d be weary.