Florida State Recruiting Update, 1.27.10

UPDATE:  As we speculated on twitter 7 days ago, Demar Dorsey has finally confirmed that UF and him have parted ways.  As indicated below, we consider him an FSU commitment and have since he committed to the 'Noles over the weekend.  He will be a 'Nole unless he decommits and goes to USC.

It's Wednesday.  That means recruiting.  As always, refer to the recruiting board for any info you may need on these prospects!  (or click their name if a link is embedded).  One more week until National Signing Day!  Make sure to be here for all the fun next Wednesday!

Here's an update from JC at ESPN:

Florida State Seminoles
New coach: Jimbo Fisher
The moment it was announced that former coach Bobby Bowden was retiring and Fisher was taking over, the Seminoles went on a tear, getting commitments from several of the top prospects in the country, including five-star CB Lamarcus Joyner (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Saint Thomas Aquinas) and five-star ILB Jeff Luc (Port Saint Lucie, Fla./Treasure Coast), the nation’s top prospects at their respective positions. The Seminoles are waiting on defensive end Corey Lemonier (Hialeah, Fla./Hialeah), athlete Christian Green (Tampa, Fla./Catholic) and linebacker Christian Jones (Winter Park, Fla./Lake Howell) down the stretch. They have a good shot at the clean sweep, plus a few potential surprises.

This past week Florida State has received a commitment from Boyd Anderson S Demar Dorsey.  Some sites are disputing this and apparently even Dorsey himself is saying that he is undecided, but we believe this is just posturing by the kid to preserve some mystery and draw attention to his "announcement."  We're sticking by the story and our information is that Dorsey is still an FSU commitment.  He could be very good under a defensive backs coach like Florida State's Mark Stoops.

As for the conflicting reports on Dorsey and the accusations of irresponsible journalism stemming from running a story without quotes, we stand by our story.  We learned of the commitment over the weekend, but in discussing the issue with other site managers, elected not to run it unless someone else released the information.  Nobody was willing to be first.  TN did not break the story, but rather linked to the breaking news from Luke Stampini.  Stampini breaks commitments, holds camps in SoFla, and is majorly tapped in to the local high school scene.  He knows when kids elect to go to even the tiniest of schools.  Once the information was out in the open, we shared what we had heard and gave information on Dorsey's profile as a prospect.

The argument that the story somehow damaged FSU's recruiting efforts or aided the coaches of other staffs is similarly flawed.  School A has private investigators tailing the school B's staff.  This is serious business.  To assert that UF or any school gained new information from TN's story is to demonstrate a lack of understanding of the level of information available to college staffs.  UF absolutely knew as soon as Dorsey committed over the weekend, and it was Dorsey himself who told other recruits and staff that he made the switch.  It's a rare occurrence when a coaching staff learns new information via a message board or digital media outlet.  Typically that occurs when a site reports action in real-time, like when a prospect commits during his official visit and the site reports it immediately.  That was not the case here, as the story came more than a day after the event.  College coaches are paid to know this information and you better believe they knew the Dorsey story before the Gator message boards began to discuss the story in the early part of the weekend.

If UF flips him back, or if USC can pull the switch,  they will have wrestled him away from FSU and done so without the aid of any website.  

1/22/10 Weekend Visits:

• FSU firmed up the commitments of Terrence Brooks and Cameron Erving, which was no surprise.  There is some chance Brooks could go to USF, but that would not be a big loss for what is already considered an excellent DB class.  
• ThaRinger.com reports that FSU commitment LB Telvin Smith enjoyed his visit to UGA.  Tharinger feels, as do I, that Smith will be in FSU's class come February 3rd.
• There is a lot of smoke about 4* DE J.R. "Ego" Ferguson's visit.  There are some saying that Ferguson committed to FSU while on the FSU.  Despite this, I do not expect him to end up at FSU, but rather at Miami, where he visits on the 29th.

• Honestly, I am surprised that New Jersey OL Dan Foose has not publicly committed to the 'Noles.  Expect a commitment soon.

• Our Shaydon Akuna source spoke with him late Tuesday night and he indicated that contrary to some rumors, he has not yet canceled his visit to Florida State.  That said, a linebacker from Hawaii committing to a school in Tallahassee, Florida should be considered unlikely. 

Other Assorted Notes:

• Former 'Nole commit Tavaris Barnes is solid to Clemson and let the world know via a rather boisterous face book announcement.  
• LB Christian Jones is probably the most-talked about recruit leading up to NSD this year.  Numerous outlets are reporting that he will make a visit to FSU before NSD, either a mid-week visit or an unofficial on the 29th.  Tharinger.com confirmed that Jones has basketball games Friday and Tuesday.  If he is on campus this weekend, it will likely be Saturday.   
• Tampa Catholic WR Christian Green might be taking a visit to FSU this weekend. Green's brother recently committed to play defensive end for FAMU, a development that bodes well for FSU.  We believe FSU continues to lead over UGA and UF for Green's services. 
  
• DE Corey Lemonier narrowed his choices to FSU and Auburn.  Pretty confident with him.  It will depend on how he bonds with DE coach Darin Eliot and if he buys into the SEC hype machine. 
  
• Some possible greyshirt candidates are Holmes Onwukaife (late birthday and he already wants to redshirt) and Dan Foose.  These are all unconfirmed rumors, and TN is not sure which recruits will greyshirt. 
  
• While we expect that FSU will sign multiple kids with the intention of placing them in Junior Colleges, those kids are not specifically known at this time. 

Inside,  we offer a predicted class!  Click "continue reading this story"

Wrapping up the 2010 signing class:

At this point, we expect FSU to sign 28-29 prospects.  The 'Noles could and will sign more if everything breaks their way and in that case FSU would result to greyshirts.  Here's what the board looks like right now

As far as a projected class, we feel that the following kids are more likely to attend FSU than any other school (greater than 50% chance on each of the uncommitted kids).  Current commitments appear in bold.

QB Clint Trickett
RB Debrale Smiley
WR Christian Green
WR Kenny Shaw
WR Greg Dent
WR DeJoshua Johnson
WR/ Ath Jared Haggins
TE Will Tye
TE Tank Sessions
OL Dan Foose (our recruiting guys regard him as a virtual lock)
DE Darious Cummings
DE Bjoern Werner (barely made it into the list)
DE Corey Lemonier
DT Anthony "Amp" McCloud
DT Damien Jacobs
DT Cameron Erving
LB Christian Jones
LB Jeff Luc
LB Telvin Smith
LB Nigel Terrell
LB Holmes Onwukaife
CB LaMarcus Joyner
CB Terrence Mitchell
CB Mike Harris
CB Terrence Brooks
S Chad Abrams
S Demar Dorsey
S/ ATH Jeremy Deering

We do not yet feel comfortable stating that the following kids are more likely than not to sign with FSU.  Even if FSU is more likely than any other school, if his chances of going to FSU are less than 50%, he is in this group.  For instance, if prospect A is "40% FSU/ 30% Bama/ 30% Tennessee" he would be in this group because his FSU percentage is not more than 50%.

RB Mack Brown
DE J.R. "Ego" Ferguson
DT Calvin Smith ('Bama and Tennessee hard charging)
DT Charles Deas (grades issue only, would enroll late in summer from his JUCO)
LB Shaydon Akuna (Oregon State excellent school for linebackers)

This is all subject to change and as the week wears on, it almost certainly will. Keep your web browser pointed on us and we'll keep you up to date.

With the full allotment of coaches recruiting, the 'Noles seem to be making great progress on the trail. They might finish with a top 5 class!  Pretty remarkable for an ACC team that finished 7-6.

Editor's Note: As has been the case the past two years, we hope you'll join us for National Signing Day. It will be an all day event.  We'll keep track of all of the commitments, both FSU and otherwise, and we hope you guys all stop by and participate again this year. We had approximately 3,000 comments last year on NSD.  Also, if you're near the high school of a likely commitment or committed prospect, please contact us.  You may have the opportunity to assist with what should be a great national signing day.