FSU football: Does FSU have a realistic shot with 4-star Blake Nichelson?

FSU football has struggled to land quality linebackers from high school in recent years. The Noles only took one linebacker from high school last recruiting cycle, three-star Omar Graham Jr.

The 2023 recruiting cycle hasn’t been fruitful at linebacker yet, and the number of quality targets doesn’t seem to be where it needs to be. However, the coaching staff has scheduled an official visit from four-star linebacker Blake Nichelson this weekend.

Nichelson hails from Manteca, California, and lists as the No. 251 player and No. 18 linebacker nationally.

He checks in at 6’2″ and 205 pounds with 18 offers. Nichelson has officially visited Washington and will officially visit Oregon next week after FSU. He’ll have two official visits remaining.

Do the Noles have a realistic shot in this recruitment? I always find it difficult to put much stock into west coast players coming all the way to Florida.

FSU has had some recent success with Jaiden Lars-Woodbey, Camren McDonald, and AJ Duffy coming from the west coast. The Noles officially offered Nichelson in early May, and he’s coming for an official visit a couple of months later.

I suppose that’s a solid sign, especially since the other schools with the most interest are west coast schools like Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and Arizona. Nichelson has been to Oregon several times unofficially, and Oregon’s new head coach Dan Lanning is a defensive guy.

If I had to guess who the favorite to land him, it would be Oregon, so it’ll be interesting to see what he says after the official visit. If he mentions intentions of coming back to visit unofficially, that would be a good sign.

Nichelson hasn’t been to FSU before to my knowledge, and I’d find it hard to believe he would commit and sign with a school while only visiting once.

However, there’s a definitive need at linebacker, and the Noles would provide way more exposure than the west coast schools with their games airing so late. Nichelson would be the highest-ranked linebacker to sign since Stephen Dix Jr. in the 2020 recruiting cycle.