Many FSU fans have given up on Mike Norvell and the staff landing elite high school players, although they just landed a couple after only winning two games last season.
I'm still in the wait-and-see mode because I understand elite players won't change their perception of FSU until they can see an improved product on the field with the new staff. Unfortunately, we're months away from that, and opposing schools have used every negative piece of recruiting possible against FSU.
It's time for Mike Norvell and the coaching staff to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and start fighting fire with fire. The first target should be the Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes. Those coaches and their media constantly talk about recruiting and developing high school players and complain about FSU using the portal too much.
Even some FSU media loves to talk about how Miami lands top 10 recruiting classes but fails to point out those players don't contribute.
Miami landed the No. 8 prep class in 2023 and the No. 6 in 2024. Here's the kicker in that almost every impact player they had to go 10-3 last year came from the transfer portal.
If they develop their players, one would say those players signed in 2023 should be in line to contribute in the upcoming season, right? Wrong.
Miami engaged in recruiting battles for portal players on both sides of the ball. It's wild because the numbers don't lie. Miami has signed 76 high school players and 50 transfers over the past three recruiting cycles.
FSU has signed 65 high school players and 52 transfers over the past three recruiting cycles.
Miami is signing bigger high school recruiting classes and STILL living in the portal.
Here's the point everyone has been missing that I've been saying the whole time. Miami's high school recruiting classes are propped up by quantity and project players with a blue-chip ranking who can't play in year one.
It's why we don't see any freshman playing much for Miami, and why they have to continue to live in the portal to compete on the field. It's also why we've seen several freshman from Miami enter the transfer portal.
This is the information Mike Norvell and staff need to start going on the offensive with to combat teams like Miami negatively recruiting against them, talking about how they don't develop players. Miami's the team that doesn't develop high school players, but people let it slide because they pad their recruiting class rankings with quantity over quality.