Florida State coaches add a three-star and lose a three-star from its 2026 recruiting class; that’s the sentiment among FSU football fans who follow recruiting.
FSU gained a commitment from three-star defensive lineman Franklin Whitley on Tuesday and lost a commitment from three-star defensive lineman Tico Crittendon on Wednesday evening.
Crittendon committed to the Noles in mid-June after taking official visits to Texas Tech and Georgia. The Peach State product took two unofficial visits to FSU during the season, one for the Alabama game and the other for the Miami one.
One would have thought these de-commitments would have come after the loss against Stanford or during the bye week last week, not after FSU finally won an ACC matchup in impressive fashion.
BREAKING: Class of 2026 DL Tico Crittendon has Decommitted from Florida State, he tells me for @rivals
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) November 5, 2025
The 6’4 285 DL from Lithonia, GA had been Committed to the Seminoles since June
He holds a total of 37 offershttps://t.co/OMNH29BFcp pic.twitter.com/vcIpLZFAyZ
Crittendon, taking the official visit to Georgia this summer, always let me know he was probably better than his three-star ranking. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him go to another big time program, or one offering some substantial money.
FSU has four defensive linemen committed with the loss of Crittendon, including highly-ranked Earnest Rankins. Can the Noles hold on to that commitment? It likely didn’t help when FSU fans had Mike Norvell on the hottest of hot seats after the Stanford loss(and rightfully so). It’s likely teams are using that as negative recruiting to put doubt in the mind of commits on whether Mike Norvell will even be the coach at FSU in the long term.
This is a player we would have loved to have kept in the recruiting class, because FSU needs all of the help it can get in the trenches. Crittendon was someone who has had the size to play relatively early. It'll be interesting to see where he ends up.