Florida State football, recruiting news: FSU parts ways with three-star linebacker commit

Recruiting:

• Late Tuesday night, Florida State football parted ways with three-star LB commit DeMarco Artis as first reported by Noles 247. The linebacker from Seminole (Fla.) was rated the No. 535 overall prospect in the nation according to 247 Composite rankings and was committed to Florida State since August. Artis has an official visit planned to Oregon this weekend, just one of the 32 schools to offer the talented athlete a scholarship. FSU's 2017 recruiting class now sits at 21 commitments including seven early enrollees.
• 2019 DT Antonio Alfano, rated the No. 69 commit by 247 in the current high school sophomore class, received a scholarship offer to FSU, his 11th total offer. Alfano, from Bergen Catholic (NJ), has other top-tier offers from schools including Ohio State and Penn State.

• Just a reminder that National Signing Day is exactly one week away from today.
• FSU also sent out an offer to 2018 DE Malik Vann from Fairfield (Oh.). The three-star has 19 total offers including Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Wisconsin and Tennessee among others.

Football:

• In SB Nation’s countdown of the top 100 college football games of the 2016-2017 season, Florida State made an appearance six times. The highest was the exciting 33-32 Orange Bowl victory over Michigan which ranked No. 4 in the list.

• Athlon Sport listed the ten departing players from the ACC that will be the toughest to replace. ‘Noles RB Dalvin Cook and DE DeMarcus Walker were included in the list with OL Roderick Johnson earning an honorable mention.

The Seminoles will go into 2017 ranked in the top five, if not No. 1. But Dalvin Cook will not be their only major loss. The FSU defense had an up-and-down season, but through it all stood Walker. The senior was sixth nationally with 21.5 tackles for lost yardage and the 134 yards lost on those stops ranked No. 2. His 16 sacks were a big part of those numbers and he was a force that lived in the opposing backfield. The Noles will get star safety Derwin James back from injury, but Walker’s absence will be felt.

• Is Florida State a playoff contender or a pretender in 2017? Jared Shanker of ESPN lists the implications on how both outcomes could occur next season.

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