Florida State football, recruiting news: Jimbo Fisher checks in on four-star receiver target

Football

Yahoo’s Pat Forde assesses a satisfaction rating for each ACC team with its current coach. One coach is given a 5/5 but it isn’t Jimbo Fisher. Think Clemson has reason to be more satisfied with its coach than the Seminoles?

Florida State: Jimbo Fisher (78-17 at Florida State, 48-12 in ACC). Satisfaction rating: 4. Fisher is flirting with 5 status, having won a national title, spurning LSU twice and producing six 10-win seasons out of seven on the job. He’s done about as well as the immediate successor to a legend as anyone in the history of the sport. The only question is whether he can win at the highest level without Jameis Winston (27-1 with him as QB, 51-16 without him).

Entering his sophomore season at Florida State, Deondre Francois is receiving some attention from oddsmakers in the 2017 Heisman race.

ESPN recruiting analyst Derek Tyson analyzes how recruiting at the University of Florida has shifted since Jim McElwain has taken over the program as well as what the Gators need to do to keep up with the times.

Since ESPN began keeping track of recruiting class rankings in 2006 and up until signing day in 2014, a span of nine years, the Gators average recruiting class rank was fourth. Over the last two years under Jim McElwain, the Gators finished with the 20th and 12th-ranked classes and currently have the 19th-ranked class behind schools such as Maryland and South Carolina.

Recruiting

Jimbo Fisher and co-offensive coordinators Randy Sanders and Lawrence Dawsey took a visit to see four-star wide receiver Devonta Smith on Monday evening. Smith, a native of Amite, Louisiana, has long been thought to be deciding between Alabama and LSU. However, a recent visit to Tallahassee has led the Seminoles’ surge late in the process.

Our own Bud Elliott examines what caused the surprising surge of crystal ball predictions to Florida State for four-star linebacker Leonard Warner.

Alumni

A pair of former Florida State national champions will be competing against each other in the upcoming Super Bowl LI.

Other Sports

With a pair of wins over top-15 teams last week, the Florida State basketball team surged up the ranks of this week’s AP poll, reaching the highest mark in the program over the last 25 years.

Two of the main reasons for Florida State’s success were named to USBWA midseason watch lists on Monday as sophomore guard Dwayne Bacon is one of 19 players on the Oscar Robertson Trophy watch list, given to the best player in college basketball by the members of the USBWA. Additionally, freshman forward Jonathan Isaac is one of 12 players on the Wayman Tisdale Award watch list, given to the best freshman in the country.

Isaac also had the honor of being named the NCAA player of the week for his spectacular all-around play in Florida State’s two victories last week.

In addition to the success the men’s team has had of late, the Florida State women’s basketball team moved back into the No. 6 spot of this week’s AP poll.