FSU football: Did we learn why Josh Petty committed to Georgia Tech?

FSU football will play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to open the 2024 season in Dublin, Ireland. However, the Yellow Jackets may feel they've already beaten the Noles going into that game when they got a commitment from four-star offensive lineman Josh Petty on Monday. Petty was a major target for Alex Atkins and was likely the final high school offensive lineman FSU would take after gaining two highly-touted blue-chip offensive linemen in Solomon Thomas and Peyton Joseph. Petty's sister is enrolled at FSU and got his last unofficial visit before his commitment date, and many of the subscription sites felt FSU led for his commitment until the last week or so. Many FSU fans wondered why he'd choose a program like Georgia Tech over FSU and others. Here's the low down: Georgia Tech is only a few miles from home, has great academics(he wants to be an engineer), and they were offering an insane NIL package.

I knew the latter part was likely one of the biggest deciding factors. FSU and their NIL Collective (The Battle's End) have always been strategic in allocating funds. Is a player like Petty worth the investment Georgia Tech reportedly made? Man, that's a large gamble. It's like betting, where you can't collect your winnings for two years when you could have used that money for other things to obtain a more immediate return. There's also no guarantee the bet wins because offensive linemen have a huge bust rate. Is it a bad look from a perception standpoint? Absolutely. However, FSU has been in this position several times, and they always seem to come out ahead regardless. It could be that they feel that money could go towards another target they may flip down the road who could make a more immediate impact. The season may play out, and Petty doesn't want to go to Georgia Tech after all. The staff has earned my trust either way.