Florida State football recruiting doesn’t have many commits in its 2027 class or a high national ranking in John Garrett’s first year as General Manager. Garrett assumed the role on January 1st after serving as the General Manager of Player Personnel for two seasons at Duke.
His hire coincided with Manny Diaz becoming the head coach, and Duke went 9-4 in 2024, defeating Florida State for the first time. Duke went 9-5 in 2025, somehow winning the ACC regular season title. Admittedly, Duke played soft schedules in both of those seasons, but Garrett seemed to have a recruiting formula, and that formula looks like it’s getting implemented at Florida State.
Duke took a large high school recruiting class (28 signees) in John Garrett’s first season as GM. However, he didn’t fully get all of his fingerprints on that class because he didn’t arrive until after the 2023 season at FSU finished. It’s the 2026 recruiting class at Duke that fully had his fingerprints on it. Ironically, that class looks similar to what Florida State is doing from a numbers perspective.
Duke only signed 14 high school players in the 2026 class and took 19 players from the transfer portal. Florida State currently has 10 commits in its 2027 recruiting class, and only a handful of realistic targets remain. This FSU recruiting class will likely be between 14 and 20 high school signees. Duke took advantage of the transfer portal (much like Florida State did when John Garrett was at FSU the first time).
General Manager John Garrett had success at Duke and looks to bring it back to Florida State
That’s when Florida State had its greatest success in the Mike Norvell era. The 2022-23 teams had a few high school contributors, but the bulk of the production came via the transfer portal. Is Garrett setting Florida State up for another large transfer portal haul after the 2026 season concludes? It will likely depend on how the season goes and if Mike Norvell is still the head coach.
However, transfer portal players generally make greater impacts because of their experience and physical maturity, especially in the trenches and at quarterback. Garrett was responsible for quarterback Darian Menseh transferring to Duke. From a high school perspective, Garrett seemed to covet defensive ends at Duke, and already has two in FSU’s 2027 class, and could add another.
Running backs and defensive linemen got attention, and FSU is doing a solid job with those positions so far. The FSU class ranking is terrible, but they’ve met some roster needs in a limited capacity through the high school ranks, and that’s the same thing Garrett did at Duke. I’ve long been an advocate of using the transfer portal exclusively for certain positions because it takes too long for certain positions to transition from high school to college and make an impact. Garrett seems to have a similar thought process, though I’m not sure how much money is available to spend dictates what positions get attention.
I know most Florida State fans are obsessed with high school recruiting rankings, and I've said for the longest time that the importance of that is over. It's all about finding the right system and balance between high school and portal recruiting. It looks like FSU will go with a smaller high school class and, hopefully, spend in the transfer portal, while retaining who they want from the players on the team.
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