How talented is Florida State’s roster?

For the purposes of this article, only recruits from the class of 2017 through the class of 2020 will be referenced, as those are the classes that should realistically be making up your 2020 roster.

As Florida State has hit rock bottom from an on-field perspective how much talent or lack thereof is currently on the roster?

Before I get started, for the unfamiliar, I’m going to define a couple of terms that I’ll be using multiple times throughout the article.

Attrition

A player that is no longer on the roster through the following means: violation of team rules, Medical DQ (Disqualification), voluntary withdrawal (transferring or entering the transfer portal)

Blue-chip recruit

A player that when he signed with FSU was rated four-stars or higher on 247’s Composite Rankings. The composite rankings weighs average from the three major services (247, Rivals, and ESPN); it is the ranking comprised of the most objective data. A four-star player has a composite grade of 89.00 or higher.

Early Signing Transition class

A recruiting class that had to deal with the fact that A. They were signing with a program in which a new Head Coach was hired in the same year and B. Most of their classmates or other highly regarded recruits already signed in the Early Signing Period

In 2017 FSU signed a 24 man class (12 blue-chip recruits) with as of today eight (5 blue-chip) members are no longer on the roster through attrition. It should also be noted that this would be your senior class and in this class FSU signed one offensive lineman: Three-star Brady Scott.

In 2018 FSU signed a 21 man class (13 blue-chip recruits) this was the first Early Signing Transition class that FSU had to deal with. As of today through attrition FSU has lost ten (six blue-chip) members of this class. The two most notable, in my opinion, are former HS All-Americans offensive linemen Christian Meadows & Christian Armstrong.

In 2019 FSU signed a 21 man class (9 blue-chip recruits) and as of today has only suffered two attrition losses. On the surface it looks good but this was also the first class to notice a significant drop in the quality/talent of the recruit that FSU typically signs. 2017 composite avg: 91.10, 2018 composite avg: 90.91, 2019 composite avg: 89.09.

In 2020 FSU signed a 25 man class (9 blue-chip recruits) and as of today it has only lost one man to attrition (four-star DT Emmanuel Rogers, who is headed to JUCO). It was also the second Early Transition Signing Class that FSU has had in the last three years. Its composite avg: 87.96. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that most of the elite recruits are signing in the ESP and FSU has twice now been unable to take advantage of that period to the fullest due to a new coaching staff taking over — and it now faces a disadvantage again, with the dead period still in effect due to the pandemic.

“Really, since we’ve been here, I think it was eight days before the early signing period that the campus was live, we had 14 to 15 days in January, and then with the month of February being dead, we had another 12 days in March. I don’t know if throughout that time that there was a day we didn’t have a prospect on campus,” head coach Mike Norvell said yesterday. “[Recruits] want to see the experience, but it’s a challenge that we can’t be a part of setting that [up]. We can’t really do anything when it comes to their unofficial visits.”

You can say that FSU looks outgunned and unprepared on the field, and think that the fix is as easy as a few simple switches, and that’s your opinion — but the truth is, FSU must rebuild its floor before we can start talking about its ceiling again.