The FSU football fan base rides the highs and lows of the program, working to get back to an elite level.
It’s frustrating for sure, and the latest news of the former five-star offensive lineman Amarius Mims likely removing himself from the transfer portal and staying at UGA is the latest thing FSU fans are up in arms with.
Mims entered the transfer portal last week, even though UGA head coach Kirby Smart didn’t want to lose the talented player.
Mims took an official visit to FSU football, beginning on Wednesday, with the visit concluding on Friday. Once the visit concluded, FSU fans expected him to announce he would commit to FSU for whatever reason.
I wrote on social media that day that it didn’t matter if Mims announced a commitment that or not because it wasn’t binding. People blame the coaches for letting him leave campus without signing when there is nothing for transfer players to sign.
As I said on Sunday night’s Built For Playmakers Podcast, the only thing Mims could do that would bind him to FSU is enroll in classes.
The only problem is he can’t do that because he’s still enrolled at UGA, and the FSU summer session doesn’t begin for another week or two.
Mims Recruitment Continued
Mims could have announced a commitment to FSU and visited other schools if he wanted. He could have changed his mind and committed elsewhere after that if he wanted.
The coaching staff had no leverage in the situation. The coaches recruit him and lay everything out to him and his family with the hopes they gain a commitment, and the commitment is honored by the player enrolling in classes when the time comes.
I think what people forget is the college the player leaves can continue to court the player once they enter the transfer portal. As I said, Kirby Smart didn’t want to lose Amarius Mims, so apparently, they kept recruiting him even though he entered the portal.
❗️NEW EPISODE ALERT❗️ Episode 37: Thoughts on FSU Spring game and thoughts on the recruitment of #Amarius Mims. Subscribe/Tell a #FSU fan. #OneTribe Powered by @BleavSports https://t.co/LnP66frGPQ
— Built For Playmakers Podcast (@Built4Playmaker) April 18, 2022
Georgia beat out all of the other schools recruiting Mims out of high school, so it’s not a crazy thought to think they couldn’t do it again. Nobody is to blame here.
Think of Mims as an employee of a company that gets another job offer and his current job has the opportunity to match or better the job offer. That’s essentially what the transfer portal could become for high-profile players.
Those players have all the leverage in this situation and can use the threat of entering the transfer portal as a way to get better NIL deals, etc. I’m not saying Mims intentionally did this, but this type of stuff is going to change college football forever.
Takeaways
I’ve said several times that FSU benefitted from Mims not being able to transfer to another SEC school without receiving a waiver.
Otherwise, he would have had to sit out for a year. If Mims didn’t require that waiver, it’s unlikely FSU would have been in the mix anyway. However, one thing to take away is FSU at least tried to get a player the caliber of Amarius Mims.
I know some people are trolling, talking they are glad they didn’t donate money to Rising Spear. However, that line of thinking is why FSU doesn’t have the booster support it should have, with only 2-3 percent of the alumni supporting the booster organization. I thought the rollout for Rising Spear during the Spring Game Week festivities was well done, and it is clear FSU wants to play big boy football.
However, it’s going to take resources they don’t have just yet to do it. It’s also going to take more wins on the football field. Amarius Mims enrolling at FSU would have helped tremendously, but the expectation was the Noles would win about seven games without him. I think most would say 8-4 is attainable if you could guarantee good injury luck at QB.
The coaching staff has this program going in the right direction. There will be other transfer portal targets. They’ve gotten some key players from the transfer portal like Jared Verse and Tatum Bethune, two players a lot of Power 5 programs wanted to sign.
However, when it comes to the upper-tier players, it doesn’t matter who’s on the coaching staff because when programs like Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State want a player? They have the resources to get him. FSU didn’t lose Mims to Miami or some other school. They just lost him to UGA, again if he officially takes himself out of the portal, and UGA beats everyone for players, even Alabama.