Naseir Upshur, who checks in at 6'2, 233 pounds, took an interesting path on his way to Florida State. He was considered a Michigan State, Miami, and Michigan lean at times throughout his early commitment while the Seminoles were completely out of the picture with 2016 five-star tight end Isaac Nauta still a committed member of their recruiting class.
However, Nauta's decision to decommit from Florida State last July left a hole in the class that Florida State, more specifically head recruiter and tight ends coach Tim Brewster, wanted filled with another tight end. Brewster wasted little time, getting Upshur in for an unofficial visit the very next week. That was closely followed by Upshur's commitment less than one month after that on September 1st of 2015, just 34 days after Nauta reopened his recruitment. Since that time, Upshur has taken an unofficial visit to Maryland but his sole official visit is happening this weekend in Tallahassee ahead of National Signing Day on Wednesday when he will make it official. He chose the Seminoles over 40 other scholarship offers, including Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Oregon, USC, UF, Auburn, LSU, and Iowa.
Upshur, who hails from Philadelphia's (PA) Imhotep Institute, is rated as a consensus four-star recruit by all major recruiting outlets. The 247Sports composite has him as a four-star tight end, the No. 5 tight end, No. 4 player in Pennsylvania, and No. 155 overall player in the 2016 class. He recently received the honor of being named a member of the USA Today All-USA second-team offense, labeling him as the second best tight end in the nation according to their evaluations.
Over his four-year high school career, Upshur accumulated 1,253 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. His far-and-away best season was his junior year which saw him bring in 22 catches for 640 yards (29 yards per catch) and 11 receiving touchdowns.
Upshur joins a tight end unit that returns all members from last season. However, Ryan Izzo has emerged as the only regular option at tight end in the receiving game. Mavin Saunders has yet to perform consistently enough to warrant a larger amount of playing time and Jeremy Kerr has only one career catch and is used primarily as a blocker. Jalen Wilkerson redshirted last season so he will be competing as well. All of this taken into account, early playing time is not out of the question for Upshur if he emerges as a consistent option in practice when he joins the team this summer.
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