FSU football: Impact of Roderick Kearney flipping to Florida Gators

FSU football lost one of their top 2023 recruits Monday night when four-star offensive lineman Roderick Kearney finally went public to announce he’s flipping his commitment to the Florida Gators.

The writing had been on the wall for weeks as Kearney repeatedly showed up in Gainesville this fall. Ironically, he committed to FSU football just minutes after leaving his official visit with Florida this summer.

That situation led to a ton of jokes for FSU football fans to use on Florida fans, but ultimately, they got their guy.

Kearney ranks as the No. 123 player and No. 4 interior offensive lineman nationally. Kearney visited FSU for the Boston College game and officially visited for the Clemson game, but in the end felt Gainesville was best for him.

Impact

While it’s never a good look to lose a top 150 player to a rival, it’s not like FSU hasn’t been preparing for this situation.

They planned to take a smaller offensive line class, and already have top 100 offensive tackle Lucas Simmons committed and set in a good spot for another top guy in DJ Chester.

FSU offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins is one of the best recruiters in the game and won’t bat an eye at this loss.

The good news is the Noles took one of the best offensive line hauls nationally in the last recruiting cycle, so they can afford to go big game hunting in this class.

The loss of Kearney drops the Noles from No. 16 to No. 19 nationally with 16 commits. I think the Noles will look to take two more offensive linemen if they are of high quality and could reserve another spot for one from the transfer portal.

Good luck to Roderick Kearney, but the Noles will be fine after this de-commitment.