FSU football: Impact of Jermaine Johnson Lombardi Award semifinalist

FSU football coaches had to decide on a recruiting strategy during the COVID-affected 2021 recruiting cycle.

The coaches could pursue high school players they never met in person that would need 2-3 years to develop before they could make an impact, or they could find immediate contributors in the transfer portal.

The latter sounds like a sure-fire winning strategy, but the only problem is the most coveted players from the transfer portal want to go somewhere they can win and compete for championships.

FSU football has been one of those places historically, but that hasn’t been the case in the last 4-5 seasons, which meant the likelihood of landing a difference-maker at defensive end was slim.

However, an unbelievable pursuit and due diligence coupled with some key relationships helped FSU football coaches sign former Georgia defensive end Jermaine Johnson.

The signing surprised some FSU football fans, but even then, it wasn’t a guarantee Johnson would be the contributor FSU fans clamored for because he only had limited playing experience at Georgia.

There were still question marks, but Johnson erased all of those in the first game against Notre Dame. Johnson finished that game with seven tackles and 1.5 sacks, and 2.5 tackles for a loss.

He’s second on the team with 44 tackles(leading all defensive ends) and seven sacks (leads the nation). Johnson received recognition Wednesday as one of 12 semifinalists for the Lombardi Trophy (best linemen in college football). Let’s discuss how that impacts FSU football.