FSU football: 3 major differences between 2022 and 2019 recruiting

To no fault of his own Willie Taggart and his coaching staff were not dealt a great hand for 2019 recruiting.

He had to scramble to fill out the 2018 recruiting class, and Jimbo Fisher quit recruiting, which meant FSU was well behind its competitors evaluating players in the 2019 recruiting cycle.

It’s likely why Taggart concentrated so much on the highest-ranked players because they didn’t have the luxury of evaluating a ton of players, and he believed it was a reload and not a rebuild.

That situation translated into when plan A was no longer interested or committed elsewhere, then the staff focused too much on continuing to recruit those players instead of identifying other quality targets.

By that time, those alternative targets had built better relationships with other programs.

FSU football only sent out 227 offers during the entire 2019 recruiting cycle. Mike Norvell and his staff have sent out 327 offers, and there are still seven months left until National Signing Day in February.

Truthfully, it was closer to a reload than a rebuild at the time, if he and his staff were better prepared on and off the field.

The other issue is how often and how long Mike Norvell and the staff have been able to get recruits on campus.

It’s more than a couple of hours here and there, as most unofficial visitors have been on campus all day or multiple days in June with Norvell and his staff.

That makes a difference when it comes to building the type of relationship needed to sustain commitments.

One of the biggest differences is how well Mike Norvell’s staff works together compared to Taggart’s staff.

The pandemic hurt Mike Norvell’s staff way more than it helped, but it did allow the staff to work together to get a ton of offers out for 2022 and beyond.

There are no egos with this staff. We often see them congratulating one another on social media when a player commits.

They actually like one another it seems.

One of the major reasons FSU lost QB commit Sam Howell was because of the dynamics of his relationship with then offensive coordinator Walt Bell and Willie Taggart.

That’s not the case with Mike Norvell and FSU offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham. There is no dissension in that relationship, and Dillingham isn’t looking to leave the program.

Willie Taggart’s staff would argue about who was the lead recruiter for different players. Mike Norvell’s staff doesn’t care who gets the credit. There are usually multiple coaches involved in the recruitment of one single player.

That’s why you hear so many recruits talking about the family aspect of FSU football nowadays. It’s much easier to accomplish a task when every person on the staff works together for one common goal.

Not only is that important, but the attitude of the CURRENT players on the roster likely plays a bigger role.Recruits can read a room and tell if current players aren’t giving good vibes. If that’s the case, you already know what’s going to happen.

However, that’s not the case with the current roster. We’ve seen current players actively recruiting players to come to join the CLIMB in Tallahassee. I’m not sure that was the case with the 2019 class, especially after the season began.