Mike Norvell and several new coaching staff hires salvaged the 2025 recruiting class after a disastrous 2-10 season. The 2025 recruiting class finished No. 19 nationally with a better than 50 percent blue-chip ratio.
That's not the standard, but it's better than what could have been. There's one more potential blue-chip target (J'Vari Flowers) who was re-classified from the 2026 class that could join.
Other than that, FSU coaches have turned their attention to 2026 and beyond. They added a linebacker commit on Thursday evening, so I thought it would be a good time to look at where the class stands near the end of February:
- Efrem White: No. 123 nationally, No. 8 athlete, No. 18 player in Florida
- Darryon Williams: No. 197 nationally, No. 13 athlete, No. 30 player in Florida
- Darryll Bell III: No. 350 nationally, No. 27 safety, No. 50 player in Florida
- Amari Clemons: No. 279 nationally, No. 23 RB, No. 41 player in Florida
- Tedarius Hughes: No. 376 nationally, No. 29 safety, No. 56 player in Florida
- Karon Maycock: No. 571 nationally, No. 43 LB, No. 86 player in Florida
- Xavier Payne: No. 630 nationally, No. 47 OT, No. 89 player in Florida
The recruiting rankings for the 2026 class are far from accurate and will likely have several updates as we go through the year. As you can see, there's a heavy emphasis on in-state players, and they'll take their share from Georgia as in the past few years.
The class has five composite blue-chip players and ranks No. 11 nationally. It's the No. 1 class in the ACC and better than Florida (No. 44) and Miami (No. 32).
The new hires on the coaching staff have done a good job resetting things for Mike Norvell and taking some of the ammunition away from teams looking to recruit negatively against the Noles.
There's a long way to go, but they are in a good spot, considering the record last year. The staff seemed to try to transition to concentrating on more high school players in 2025 before the season started and went downhill.
They had done a good job with several top players committed, and it'll be interesting to see if they take that same approach with the 2026 class. Whatever happens, they must have success on the field early in hopes of keeping any top players they manage to secure commitments from.