How FSU football is positioning prep players to contribute soon
By Kelvin Hunt
If you’ve read about FSU football on this site, you know I’m a believer in what Mike Norvell did with the transfer portal.
He took an unconventional approach and flipped the program, using transfer players but also methodically accumulating quality pieces from the high school ranks.
Rival fans like to point out FSU hasn’t finished with a top 10 ranking since the 2017 recruiting cycle. However, that’s mainly because of the strategy Mike Norvell implemented.
Norvell could have signed 25 high school players to increase the class ranking, but that would have slowed the progress because most high school players need 1-2 years to develop before they contribute at a high level.
Norvell sacrificed recruiting rankings to bring in players who were ready to play . It’s why you’ve seen the gap close so quickly between FSU and teams who were beating FSU by 21+ points before Mike Norvell got hired and in his first season.
For all the talk about FSU as the “Transfer Portal U” and not recruiting high school players well, the latter isn’t true.
This article will detail how Mike Norvell used the transfer portal to position prep players to contribute as soon as 2024 across multiple positions.