Dax Dellenbach and Toshmon Stevens are the 61st and 62nd players profiled in this series looking at those likely to impact Florida State's season. There is 1 day until FSU football. The list is not in any specific order.
On this final day, we offer you a double dip of feel good stories. And yes, this is primarily because I miscounted by a day and was 500 words deep in the Xavier Rhodes preview, only to realize that I already did Rhodes at No. 34. Counting!
Toshmon Stevens
6'5, 245 | RS-SR | Defensive End
From The Media Guide
Talented multi-sport athlete at Crescent City High School, which produced former Seminole fan favorite, fullback Pooh Bear Williams...FSWA 2B first-team All-State selection at defensive end...earned a three-star ranking as a prospect...a multi-sport athlete in high school who did not play his first full season of football until 2006...recorded 56 tackles and 12 sacks as a senior to help his team to a 10-0 regular season record...starting center on basketball team and two-time state high jump finalist with a personal-best leap of 6-foot-8...chose FSU over 17 FBS offers, including South Carolina, Tennessee, NC State, Virginia Tech and Arizona State, among others...born March 5, 1989.
Stevens is an awesome story. He is the definition of "hard gainer." Even with Florida State's super nutrition and weight program, Stevens really struggled to put on weight. In the meantime, he continued to be a hard worker, stayed out of trouble, and became a very good player on special teams. His most important play at Florida State has probably been the heads up tackle of Miami punt returner Travis Benjamin, after Benjamin had muffed the punt, which allowed Telvin Smith to scoop up the football. With the returner neutralized, no other Hurricanes were around to pick up the ball.
Stevens, who has his degree, has continued to work in the weight room. He's now up to 245 pounds, and has an actual shot to get some playing time in the defense this season. That's particularly true since Florida State looks like it will be blowing out quite a few opponents.
Stevens is truly a feel good story for the Seminoles. He's a young man who overcame a lot, stuck with it, got his degree, didn't cause trouble and became a player everyone should root for.
Dax Dellenbach
6'1, 235 | Senior | Long Snapper
From The Media Guide
Started his collegiate career at Auburn where he was on the team in 2008 and 2009...played his high school football at North Broward Prep in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he played tight end and defensive end...also played lacrosse and ran track...son of former Wisconsin Badger Jeff Dellenbach, who played center and served as a deep snapper in the NFL for 15 years in stints with the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles...born on April 13, 1990.
Dellenbach is Florida State's long snapper. And he's held the title since 2010. I'm not an expert on long snappers, but I do know that he is good enough to earn a scholarship from Florida State (big schools don't always give their snapper a scholarship), and that Florida State has not had any snapping issues during his tenure. Absent evidence to the contrary, I'll assume he's pretty good. Long snappers don't get noticed unless they mess up. And when they do make mistakes, they are usually quite costly.
A special shoutout for Alyssa Brown, who as you might expect since she is Dellenbach's girlfriend, is the constant watchdog via Twitter whenever we forget to include Dellenbach in the discussion of scholarship players or a depth chart. Thank your girlfriend, Dax. Without her, you might not have made the list.
— Alyssa Brown (@alyssabrown22) July 16, 2012
@tomahawknation YES!
Pretty cool video, eh?


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