FSU football: Recent transfer portal entries clearing roster space

FSU football was over the 85-man roster limit going into spring camp, so roster attrition was evitable before the 2023 season got underway.

However, unlike many rosters in college football, the Noles did a great job retaining almost all of their key players with a hat tip to The Battle’s End Collective.

Now that spring camp has concluded, exit interviews are taking place, and we’ve already seen multiple FSU players enter their names into the transfer portal:

• Derrick McLendon
• Brendan Gant
• Antavious Woody
• Stephan Dix Jr.
• Zane Herring

McLendon was the only unexpected player to enter the portal, who was a starter last season. However, it wasn’t a complete surprise considering he showed some signs of unhappiness on social media.

Brendan Gant was a valuable guy on special teams and a back-up linebacker. Antavious Woody didn’t last a full year after the coaches stuck with him in his recruitment when it wasn’t clear he would qualify academically.

Stephen Dix Jr. started as a freshman and saw his minutes dwindle in 2021 before missing all of last season with an injury. He wasn’t expected to be in the mix much this season with the emergence of Omar Graham and the incoming talent like Blake Nichelson.

Zane Herring wasn’t expected to see many snaps, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one more offensive lineman and one or two tight ends enter the transfer portal before the window closes in a few days.

There might be one wide receiver who would make sense for them to enter the portal, but I’m not sure it will happen since they are a great student and have dealt with some adversity since they got on campus.

Either way, this attrition isn’t a surprise and doesn’t impact the upcoming season much. If anything, there could be enough attrition that the coaches could try to add 1-2 players from the portal who would likely contribute more than these players departing. Chopchat wishes them well in their future endeavors.