FSU football: High School Recruiting Class Thoughts, So Far

Florida State’s high school recruiting class exceeds expectations despite a 2-10 season.

2026 Rank via 247.com

I must confess something to the subscribers of the Renegade Report. On the night before the high school Early Signing Period, I was expecting the worse for Florida State’s high school recruiting class. Florida State’s 2-10 record was a mortal wound to the high school recruiting class. The blue-chip prospects that the FSU coaching staff worked hard to acquire were re-opening their recruitments left and right. Three of the prospects who left FSU’s class ended up signing with Florida, rubbing further salt in the wound.

There was also the expectation that for the fourth straight recruiting cycle, we would lose our top rated prospect. The perception that Florida State couldn’t catch a break seemed to be on the money. However, the never say die attitude of Coach Norvell and his staff made chicken salad out of a chicken crap situation.

Now Florida State did lose their top prospect for the fourth straight recruiting cycle. Five-star offensive line prospect Solomon Thomas signed with LSU over Florida. Fortunately for Florida State, that was not what the recruiting sites were talking about.

What they were talking about was Florida State flipping SIX four star prospects during the Early Signing Period. It is hard enough for good teams to do that, let alone a team that only won two games. Florida State did it six times, and some of the programs they took kids from are in a lot better position than FSU is currently.

Florida State also retained all but one of the prospects that were committed before the Early Signing Period. Prospects like DT Kevin Wynn were getting serious interest from programs willing to pay top dollar. Florida State showed that despite a 2-10 season, the coaching staff still has the attention of quality high school prospects. Florida State even managed to find some intriguing prospects with potentially high ceilings.

Prospects like LaJesse Harrold have traits that if developed properly can transform that prospect into an elite football player. While it is important to take prospects that have production and polish, it is just as important to take prospects that have elite traits for their position group. The latter are the ones that if developed can help a program win at the highest level.

The Florida State coaching staff did something that I did not think was possible. They were able to finish with a top-20 high school class despite a historically bad season. To be clear, I would like to see Florida State consistently recruit top ten high school classes. Given the circumstances, I will happily take what Florida State gave us this recruiting cycle.

Go Noles!