FSU football may attempt to recreate magic of 2022 transfer portal class

The 2025 FSU football recruiting class has 11 commits as we're about a month away from the 2025 Early Signing Period next month. Ironically, the high school portion of the 2025 looks eerily similar to its 2022 predecessor. FSU has a blue-chip quarterback, several offensive linemen, a running back, a tight end, a linebacker, and some defensive backs. The 2025 FSU class has no high school receivers, no defensive ends, and likely won't have any defensive tackles unless they somehow keep Kevin Wynn or grab some guys in the 11th hour.

Most of the guys from that 2022 high school recruiting class never panned out, but it was the transfer portal portion of that class who helped the Noles turn things around in that 2022 season. FSU took four transfer receivers(only two became reliable contributors), four offensive linemen, a running back, a defensive end, and a linebacker all became important contributors.

It was players like Johnny Wilson, Jared Verse, Trey Benson, Tatume Bethune, Greedy Vance, D'Mitri Emmanuel, and Bless Harris who became All-ACC or significant contributors.

FSU will likely look to recreate that magic in the upcoming transfer portal cycle because they have similar needs again. They must address the offensive line, defensive end, defensive tackle, and wide receiver, and it wouldn't hurt to take a linebacker and solid safety. FSU did it by taking talented guys with little to no production at their previous schools, which is a gamble that paid off. However, FSU took a similar gamble in the 2024 transfer portal and seemed to have missed nearly every evaluation.

The only problem is they don't have a choice because they can't rely on high school players to come in and become immediate contributors at most of those positions. Keep an eye out on who they bring to campus for official visits over the next month and see if most of the targets don't fit the needs above. Mike Norvell has a track record of great transfer portal evaluations, and they'll need to hit big-time in the next class to turn things around as quickly as he wants.