Florida State football has plenty of good players recruited under head coach Mike Norvell, but the issue has become whether they have been developed or not. The Seminoles have built their reputation on going to the transfer portal instead of developing homegrown recruits (for the most part).
Let's take a look at one of the more decorated players in the Mike Norvell era: Quarterback Jordan Travis. While he did transfer from Louisville to Florida State during former head coach Willie Taggart's time here with the Seminoles, Travis was a "mercenary".
We could even take a step forward with the names of Trey Benson, Johnny Wilson, Jaheim Bell, Keon Coleman, Braden Fiske, Jared Verse, Fabien Lovett, Tatum Bethune, Jarrian Jones, etc.
You get the point: Transfers dominate the solid former players in the Mike Norvell era discussion.
It isn't that high schoolers aren't coming to Florida State. They just haven't panned out. It could be a mixture of bad luck, not developing properly, or injury issues. The hit rate isn't fantastic with high school prospects because college football revolves around the transfer portal, and players enter it all the time like it is running out of style.
Conrad Hussey was destined for greatness at Florida State, but now he doesn't have a home
Florida State thought that it had something special in former Class of 2023 four-star safety Conrad Hussey from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Hussey was a top-150 prospect in the cycle, according to 247Sports rankings.
The downside was that the defensive back was arriving at Florida State in the summer due to St. Thomas Aquinas High School not allowing early enrollment for its prospects. With this circumstance, I thought that it would take a while for Hussey to get going as a true freshman, and it would be a development year for him.
The former four-star prospect defied the odds by stepping on the field as a summer enrollee for a 2023 Florida State defensive unit that was viewed as one of the best in the country. Hussey recorded 22 tackles, one interception, two passes defended, and two forced fumbles during the 2023 season.
One of the more shining moments of his stint at Florida State was when he absolutely crushed a Virginia Tech running back in the backfield. Hussey came out of nowhere to land the jarring hit.
The Florida native always could lower the boom, but the main problem arose when he had to make a form tackle in the open field. Even with the deficiency, you could see why Florida State wanted him in the recruitment process.
Hussey also played in the Garnet and Gold during the disastrous 2024 campaign, where the Seminoles went 2-10. After the tenth game of the year, he was dismissed from the team due to an altercation with an assistant coach. With his removal from the team, Hussey elected to transfer to Oregon State, where he had five tackles in three games.
As I mentioned all the time, college football players enter the transfer portal all the time, and Hussey was back in it again, and eventually ended up transferring to the arch-rival Miami Hurricanes. Seminole fans didn't like to see it, as the Hurricanes are a team that the fan base wants to see Florida State beat every year.
However, this was short-lived, as it was reported by the Miami Herald reported that the Hurricanes have moved on from Conrad Hussey (read the story here). In the article, it highlights that a reason was not given. While it isn't in my best interest to speculate anything, Miami is loaded at the safety position, where Bryce Fitzgerald and Zechariah Poyser are All-ACC caliber players. It would have been difficult for Conrad Hussey to crack the rotation.
I personally hate that the young man has to go through all the trials and tribulations because of a mistake that he made while at Florida State. However, we at ChopChat are pulling for him to find a new home and get his playing career back in the right direction.
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