FSU football canceled its last couple of spring practices last week with the shootings that happened on campus. It looks like the coaches may have started their exit interview process.
It's a time when they meet with players after spring to discuss areas they need to improve or if they have a future with the program so players can make alternative plans by entering the transfer portal.
The latter will be the case for FSU's legacy defensive end Aaron Hester. The former three-star player announced his plans to enter the transfer portal on Monday via his X social media account:
I will be entering the transfer portal as a Grad Transfer with 2 years of eligibility left. Thank you Florida State !
— Aaron Hester (@theaaronhesterr) April 21, 2025
Hester played sparingly in three years at FSU. He played in eight games last year and three games in 2022 after missing all of 2023. Hester wasn't a name that got many mentions when listening to the coaches talk about practice or scrimmages.
I wrote about why FSU coaches may not pursue pass rushers in the transfer portal the way fans want them to here. While I wouldn't be upset if FSU got a couple of guys from the portal, they have a lot of bodies at the position, and it must be clear Hester wasn't going to be in the plans going forward.
FSU won't rely on defensive ends to do so much like in Adam Fuller's defense, so losing someone like Hester is more addition by subtraction since he apparently wasn't going to be a contributor. It's possible someone like Tylon Lee or another young player has surpassed him on the depth chart already.
I'll be interested to see if FSU coaches heavily pursue any defensive end options from the transfer portal. They have yet to sign a single player in the Spring Transfer Portal Window after taking 16 transfers in the Winter portal. Hester is the fifth player to enter the portal from the roster over the past couple of weeks.