FSU head coach Mike Norvell understands that recruiting is the lifeblood of a program and added criteria to his contract extension last year to bolster recruiting efforts.
FSU saw an improvement in high school recruiting over last summer, with FSU adding several high-quality recruits before the 2024 season went to crap. That class fell apart, but the new coaching staff Mike Norvell hired closed strong near the Early Signing Period in December and did a lot of work to get FSU in a position to go on an unprecedented run in June.
FSU has the No. 11 recruiting class nationally, with 20 commits overall. It's the most in the Mike Norvell era at the end of June. FSU has never signed more than 24 high school players with Mike Norvell as the head coach.
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Here's how many they have signed each year:
- 2020: 24
- 2021: 17
- 2022: 17
- 2023: 19
- 2024: 23
- 2025: 23
The 2020 class is a transition class with most of the players recruited by former coach Willie Taggart. As you can see, the following classes were much smaller than the 25 limit(at the time), and one reason FSU didn't have recruiting classes closer to the top 10.
FSU's strategy was to take smaller classes and more from the transfer portal, which worked for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Those early classes had COVID-19 restrictions, which impacted things. However, it appears FSU will continue to shift its focus towards more high school players(like it did last year before the season started).
FSU has about 7-10 more realistic targets remaining on its board, and they'll need to keep the guys they have committed. However, it's not outlandish to predict that FSU might sign 25+ players in this class. The success of the product on the field will likely impact what happens here.
If they can win eight or more games, I'd bet they'll sign that many. If they have another losing season, they'll likely fall well short of taking a large class. Here's to hoping they have a strong season to get back on track to the success they had in 2022 and 2023.