Florida State football, recruiting news: FSU quarterback Malik Henry leaving the program

Football

Late Monday evening, Noles247 broke that FSU quarterback Malik Henry will transfer from Florida State after just one season.

Chad Reuter of NFL.com ranks Deondre Francois 7th on his list of 2017 Heisman contenders.

It's easy to see why Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher wasn't interested in jumping ship to take the LSU job. He has a strong, tough quarterback to build around in Francois, plus a young offense that learned to play together in 2016. I expect the Seminoles to get back into title contention in 2017, and Francois will be the ring leader on offense.

Florida State cornerback Marquez White has accepted his invitation to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

Additionally, senior FSU wide receiver Kermit Whitfield has accepted an invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Game after the conclusion of bowl season.

A pair of FSU true freshmen, defensive end Brian Burns and kicker Ricky Aguayo, were named to Tom Luginbill’s true freshman All-America team.

DL: Brian Burns, Florida State

Burns registered 9.5 sacks, more than any other freshman in college football, and tied for 15th overall in the country.

K: Ricky Aguayo, Florida State

The younger brother of former Florida State star -- and second-round NFL draft pick Roberto -- Ricky lived up to his brother's lofty standards, nailing 17 field goals and all 48 of his extra points.

Dalvin Cook sat down with Edward Aschoff of ESPN for an interview focusing on how well Florida State finished the season and the upcoming Orange Bowl matchup with Michigan.

Speaking of Cook, he added a pair of additional All-America nods on Monday when he was named to the Associated Press and Football Writers of America Association’s first teams. In addition to Cook, senior defensive end DeMarcus Walker was named to the AP second team and sophomore cornerback Tarvarus McFadden earned a second-team nod from the FWAA.

Florida State offensive lineman Wilson Bell was arrested for failing to appear in court after a hit-and-run incident. He has since been released and any potential punishment from FSU is unknown at this time.

The RedditCFB twitter account pointed out an interesting factoid about the current tenure of the head football coaches at Florida’s D-I schools.

Recruiting

Kevin Ryan of 247Sports highlights a number of major Florida State targets who are set to commit this week including five-star wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones and five-star offensive tackle Walker Little.

Marvin Wilson, the No. 1 defensive tackle and No. 3 overall player in the 2017 recruiting class, released his senior season tape last week. FSU is very much in the mix for the highly-touted recruit but his announcement will likely be saved for National Signing Day.

Alumni

Greg Auman, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times, highlights Javien Elliott’s journey from walk-on at Florida State to contributor in the secondary for the Bucs. Elliott had his first career NFL start last Sunday against the Saints.

"The main reason we have confidence in Javien Elliott is he picks off our offense about three times every day in practice," Koetter said. "He's a kid that practices hard. We encourage those guys not to hit our guys, not to take shots, but if you can get the ball in practice, get it, and nobody picks off Jameis Winston more than Javien Elliott. He makes plays, so we knew when he had a chance to come up, that we weren't going to be afraid to put him in the game."

Other Sports

Tomahawk Nation’s staff provided observations, some reactions from the players, and a look inside the box score from FSU’s significant victory over the Florida Gators on Sunday.

With the win over Florida, the Florida State basketball team is back in this week’s top 25 of the AP and Coaches polls but the computer rankings have something different to say.