Florida State football, recruiting news: Early signing period approved

Football

FSU Athletic Director Stan Wilcox sat down for an interview with Athletic Director U, detailing how he has kept Jimbo FIsher in Tallahassee as well as if he believes a school can achieve success at multiple major sports simultaneously.

Many times the success of one program will inspire student-athletes in other sport programs to do the same. So, to me, being a “football” or “basketball” school is a misnomer – you can have comprehensive excellence in many different sports. That’s our goal at FSU and I’m sure most major institutions have the same goal. We may have more success in a particular sport over a period of time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful in all sports and strive for (and expect) “comprehensive excellence” across the board.

Morgan Moriarty of SB Nation details a proposed rule change which would allow players redshirting at that time to play in up to four games while remaining eligible for the redshirt. For Florida State, imagine if Deondre Francois had been allowed to start the final four games of the 2015 season (NC State, Chattanooga, Florida, Houston) before he was thrust into the spotlight as he was last season.

ESPN’s David Hale says to buy Florida State stock for 2017 in his ACC Atlantic Stock Watch.

Florida State Seminoles: Buy. It would’ve been nice to see a firm starting five emerge on the offensive line, but a spring of developing depth in the area most critical to FSU’s 2017 success isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Add in the solid springs from young talents like Cam Akers and Levonta Taylor and the healthy return of Derwin James and the Seminoles' stock might be ready to take off.

Sports Illustrated’s Colin Becht posed the question of Cam Akers’ readiness to take over the RB1 role at FSU in 2017 among his takeaways from spring practice across the nation.

Recruiting

There was a major change in the college football recruiting scene announced on Monday as an NCAA panel confirmed that an early signing period will be open for 72 hours beginning each December 20th.

A Florida State commit in Wanya Morris as well as FSU target Owen Pappoe are both featured in Alex Kirshner’s recap of last weekend’s The Opening Regional in Charlotte for SB Nation.

Class of 2019 Florida State tackle commit Wanya Morris is just a sophomore. It’s really hard to evaluate line play at these camps, but Morris has everything one looks for in this setting: fluid movements, body control, and a big frame.

Five-star Loganville (Ga.) linebacker Owen Pappoe is an excellent athlete. He was one of the youngest players at last year’s Opening finals, and he’ll be a highly sought national recruit until the moment he puts pen to paper in 2019.

Dorian Gerald, a 2018 junior college defensive end currently playing at College of the Canyons, took to Twitter to announce he had received an offer from FSU on Monday.

Other Sports

The FSU baseball team got some bad news on Monday when head coach Mike Martin learned that right fielder Rhett Aplin will be out four to six weeks with a broken foot, a story broken by Corey Clark of the Tallahassee Democrat.

That very Florida State team is next on action on Tuesday when it plays host to Jacksonville for the third and final game between the two teams this season.