FSU football: Impact of Brian Courtney moving to linebacker
By Kelvin Hunt
Recruiting
FSU doesn’t need a ton of linebackers in the 2024 recruiting cycle. It’s like you can count Courtney as the other linebacker in this cycle, but he’s already enrolled. Why is that important? It saves another scholarship since he’s already on the roster.
One of the biggest reasons why most high school linebackers don’t contribute early is because they aren’t physically ready to play and have to learn the defense.
Courtney was already physically ready to play out of high school and enrolled in spring 2022. He’s been through two offseasons in FSU’s strength and conditioning program and will have this summer and fall camp to get reps.
What this does is allows FSU coaches to access what they need to do in the transfer portal. They were likely going the portal route at linebacker anyway because they will need more experience once DeLoach and Bethune depart the program after this season.
If Courtney learns the defense quickly, they may only take one linebacker instead of two. If Courtney and Graham excel better than projected, they may not have to take any from the portal. It would be Courtney, DJ Lundy, Graham, Nichelson, Ward, Brown-Turner, and Parrish arriving next year.