Randy Shannon to Co-Defensive Coordinator & LB Coach Thoughts

Recruiting

FSU football looks to increase its presence in Florida and Georgia, compared to the last couple of years where the staff has had to lean on existing relationships outside of those two states. Randy Shannon has ties all over the state, but his most valuable asset is being from South Florida and having those relationships down south.

Will Shannon land elite players from that area? I think that likely depends on how FSU football does on the field. When FSU is rolling, they will get their fair share of players from the Miami area. That’s why I don’t think it was worth trying to bring in some brand new guy right now unless he was an absolute ace recruiter from South Florida.

I know folks think Miami is fully committed now with the hire of Mario Cristobal and robbing their faculty to pay him. However, any given team can only recruit but so many linebackers in a given year. FSU only offered 25 linebackers in the 2022 class, and only 11 of them were from either Florida or Georgia.

Of those 11, FSU was in play for about seven of them. The highest-ranked guy was Wesley Bissainthe at No. 169 player overall and No. 16 LB. A host of others ranked between No. 170 and No. 213 overall. I believe Randy Shannon is capable of landing players in this range, whether they are from Florida or Georgia, as long as FSU continues to improve on the field. FSU can win a lot of games with players of that caliber until they can began to compete for the elite of the elite at the linebacker position.

Overall, I like the move and it makes sense. Shannon will have a much more prominent role with the defense and will be hand-on with the linebackers instead of only working as an analyst. He’ll be able to get on the road and recruit, which should be a sizable upgrade over Chris Marve.