FSU football: What happened with Desmond Ricks recruitment?

2024 five-star defensive back Desmond Ricks caused a stir a few days ago when he released his top 10 list of schools and didn’t include FSU football.

That seemed odd for FSU fans after Ricks was all about the Noles earlier this year. He named the Noles his leader, and some thought a commitment wasn’t far away.

However, the reason why the Noles didn’t make the top 10 list came out on Twitter.

It was a quote posted by Hayes Fawcett, a guy that does social media edits for recruits.

The tweet is below:

Of course this sent FSU football fans into a frenzy on social media, with folks responding off of emotion. I mean, that’s what fans do.

So what really happened in that recruitment? I don’t have any inside information, but here’s the most sensible take I can think of in this situation.

First things first, Fawcett says Ricks almost committed to the Noles this summer in the tweet. How can that be the case if he hasn’t heard from them in months?

Calculated Decision

I never bought into the hype of Desmond Ricks to FSU earlier this year. It’s a 2024 kid, and FSU was fresh off of the Travis Hunter debacle. It was great to see the young man on campus and giving love to the Noles, but it wasn’t long before he was visiting other schools, and the narrative of FSU leading in his recruitment dissipated quickly.

Ricks was on campus in early April and visited Alabama the next weekend, and the recruitment went from FSU as the leader to Alabama, and FSU stand out for him.

Desmond Ricks hasn’t been back on campus since April. Did the staff reach out to him after that and try to get him back on campus? Who knows, but if that’s the case and they couldn’t get him back on campus, they likely decided that ship had sailed and moved on.

That would have been understandable because Ricks is a national recruit, and lots of resources would be needed to get a commitment from him. I mean, the staff experienced that with Travis Hunter a couple of months earlier.

If this is the case, the mistake was not continuing to communicate with Desmond Ricks. It costs nothing but time to call and/or text with the young man.

That falls on Mike Norvell. How does FSU have all of these new support staff, and they can’t find anyone to keep that line of communication open?

That would have prevented the public debacle they’re experiencing now.

Resources vs. Value

I do believe NIL is playing a role in some of these recruitments and FSU’s ability to get commitments from players like Roderick Kearney and Keldric Faulk leads me to believe they are strategic with who they want to use resources.

Let’s be honest games are won and lost in the trenches and at the quarterback position. The staff has addressed those positions well in the 2023 recruiting cycle. When it comes to defensive backs, is it a wise investment to use big-time resources at that position when you’re FSU right now? They just signed two top 100 defensive backs in the 2022 class.

Think about it, FSU had Derwin James on their defense in 2017. James was good, but he didn’t change games for that FSU defense. I think that’s the approach this staff is using when it comes to resources vs. value. If they’re gonna use resources strategically, it’s going to be at positions that can impact games, and that’s at the defensive end, quarterback, and the offensive line.

Avery Stuart going to Kentucky was another example of the staff choosing to use resources strategically.

Most people believe FSU football is in a good spot to land one of the top offensive tackles in the nation on Monday in Lucas Simmons. If they get that commitment, that only supports my hypothesis.

Yes, the staff made a bone-head move in not continuing to communicate with Desmond Ricks, and they have to be held accountable. Ultimately, I think we’ll see staff changes(position coaches) after this season anyways, but this type of stuff is something that ultimately falls on Mike Norvell.