Florida State’s Za’Kari Johnson commitment makes a once-painful flip a distant memory

The 2027 Florida State recruiting class will never be remembered as one of the best in program history. That’s not the goal for Mike Norvell and, more specifically, general manager John Garrett, who have the difficult task of assembling a group of commits for a program that has a head coach on a blisteringly hot seat. 

The goal is to be deliberate with their spending, pick recruiting races they can win, and then win them. Frankly, at least as of late, they’ve done a decent job of it. Four-star athlete Za’Kari Johnson, who announced his commitment on Tuesday night, is the latest example. 

Johnson was the third commitment for Florida State on Tuesday, following 2027 kicker Vance Fones and 2028 tight end Troy Silberzahn. With 15 commits in the 2027 class, FSU is creeping closer to the top 50 nationally and now has six blue-chip commits by 247Sports composite rankings. 

The 6-foot-1, 196-pound Miami Carol City product recently reclassified to the 2027 class from 2028.  A longtime target of the Noles, he took a gameday visit last season and has another scheduled for the SMU game in Week 1 this fall. 

While he played both sides of the ball for Plantation High School, where he spent last season, including some work at quarterback, Florida State has recruited him as a safety. That means the Noles finally have their Mekhi Williams replacement. 

Za’Kari Johnson replaced Mekhi Williams as Florida State’s top-ranked DB… for now

There’s no reason to be dancing in the streets of Tallahassee to celebrate the momentum FSU has garnered in the 2027 class, but the bounce-back is worth noting as a positive development. When Williams, a four-star safety from Ruskin, Florida, who was at the time FSU's top-ranked commit, flipped to Wisconsin at the start of June, it appeared as though the 2027 class was going to be a complete lost cause, especially at defensive back. 

Then, about two weeks later, three-star athlete DaYon Cooper, whom FSU had recruited as a defensive back, flipped to Tennessee to play wide receiver. That left the Noles with just one defensive back commit: three-star safety Jemari Foreman. Now, FSU is on the cusp of being loaded at the position. 

The Johnson commitment came together quickly. He reclassified on June 30, and FSU quickly gained steam, leading to this commitment, a day after Kolby Crawford of Noles247 and Zach Blostein of 247Sports both logged crystal ball predictions for him to pledge to the Seminoles. Now, Norvell and Garrett must wait just a few days to see if their efforts with fellow four-star 2027 safety Ta’Shawn Poole have paid off. 

Poole is largely expected to commit to the Seminoles when he announces on Friday evening. Ranked 12 spots above Williams as the No. 6 safety in the class, the Georgia native would become FSU’s only top-100 player in 2027 and truly wipe away any bad feelings about Williams leaving the state for Wisconsin.

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