Noles News: Boosters hire new prez, digging into defensive stats

Off the top, some relatively big news — Florida State’s fundraising arm, Seminole Boosters, Inc., has hired a new CEO and president: Stephen Ponder.

From the press release:

Ponder led the ultra-successful Forward Together Campaign at Ole Miss that surpassed its $150 million goal by $20 million while serving as Senior Executive Associate Athletics Director from 2012-16 and Deputy Athletics Director in 2016-17. He also was responsible for oversight and project management on a $100 million football facilities improvement project, a $95 million basketball facility project as well as a baseball and a varsity sport facility.

Prior to Ole Miss, Ponder was Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations at Arizona State where he is credited with increasing athletics fundraising from $7.5 million when he joined the Sun Devils in 2006 to $25 million in 2012.

Recruiting

Football

In the latest edition of his By the Numbers series, Ben Meyerson takes a look at the duo of Akeem Dent and Jammie Robinson and why the numbers show they have the chance to be elite.

Basketball

Baba Miller has officially signed with Florida State:

Baseball

Ross Dunn is leaving the FSU baseball program:

Softball

We’ve got a little sneak peek of Florida State’s 2023 season — Gwyn Rhodes breaks down the field in the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational.

Some other big news — FSU’s ace Kathryn Sandercock is coming back for another season:

All Sports

FSU track is set for the national championships in Oregon — here’s the full rundown from FSU Sports Info:

The Florida State track and field will look to bring home some hardware this week at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Action will take place Wednesday through Saturday. The men will compete on Wednesday (7:30 p.m.) and Friday (8 p.m.) while the women will take the stage on Thursday (8:30 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m.).

How to Watch

The ESPN networks will have coverage all four days of the championships. Wednesday’s and Friday’s track events will be broadcasted live on ESPN2. Thursday’s track action will be live on ESPNU while Saturday’s races on the track will be broadcasted on ESPN. All field events can be seen via live stream on ESPN3.

The Squad

Men

Jeremiah Davis (Long Jump and Triple Jump)

Isaac Grimes (Long Jump)

Jacore Irving (Triple Jump)

Taylor Banks (100m Dash

Jo’Vaughn Martin (100m Dash)

Trey Cunningham (110m Hurdles)

Adriaan Wildschutt (5000m run, 10,000m run)

Ahmed Muhumed (5000m Run)

4x100m relay (Taylor Banks, Amir Willis, Don’dre Swint, Jo’Vaughn Martin

4x400m relay (Alex Collier, Sean Watkins Jr., James Rivera, DaeQwan Butler)

Women

Edidiong Odiong (100m dash, 200m dash)

Amani Heaven (Discus)

Kelechi Nwanaga (Javelin)

Sara Zabarino (Javelin)

4x100m relay (Edidiong Odiong, Savy’on Toombs, Ka’Tia Seymour, Ashley Seymour)