Noles News: FSU adds two players to 2024 recruiting class

Recruiting

Florida State Seminoles football added a duo of commitments on Tuesday, landing four-star wide receiver Elijah Moore and three-star defensive back Rydarrius “Red” Morgan.

Moore, a 6’4, 190 pound wide receiver who plays for Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland, is currently ranked as the 432nd-best player in the nation (64th-best WR and 11th-best player in MD). He chose the Seminoles over fellow finalist (and longtime leader) Ohio State, and also held another 20 offers from the likes of the Florida Gators, Indiana Hoosiers, Kentucky Wildcats, Maryland Terrapins, Miami Hurricanes, Michigan Wolverines, Oregon Ducks, Penn State Nittany Lions, Texas A&M Aggies, USC Trojans, and Wisconsin Badgers

From Tomahawk Nation’s NoleThruandThru:

Moore is every bit of 6’4 and 190 pounds. He has the body control and strong hands to make difficult catches look routine, and he shows good awareness on how to high point the ball and use his body to shield defenders. You can see him using his basketball background when going up for contested catches, and he aggressively fights for the ball in every situation. He isn’t the fastest target, but his catch radius is huge, and he’s proven his talent on the camp circuit this summer. I fully expect him to rise in the rankings.

Morgan, a 6’0, 175 pound defensive back who plays for Central High School in Phenix City, Alabama, is currently ranked as the 545th-best player in the nation (53rd-best safety and 28th-best player in Alabama).

Morgan chose the Seminoles over 20 other offers from the likes of Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Cincinnati Bearcats, Colorado Buffaloes, Florida Gators, Miami Hurricanes, Michigan State Spartans, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Missouri Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, and Texas A&M Aggies.

From Tomahawk Nation’s NoleThruandThru:

It’s worth noting that Morgan hasn’t taken an official visit to Auburn yet, and I think that’ll very likely happen. If so, he could be a flip candidate, and FSU will have to fight hard to keep him in the fold.

Morgan is a hard-hitting defender who displays sure tackling and good instincts. He has good range and closing speed when sprinting to the ball carrier or targeted wideout, and is perhaps at his best in run support when he moves into the box. I would peg Morgan as a candidate to contribute early on special teams, particularly kickoffs. He’s a favorite of defensive coordinator Adam Fuller, and the staff likes him at safety.

FSU now has the No. 13 class in the country, with 15 total commits (1 five-star, 10 four-stars and four three-stars) averaging a 90.30 rating.

Two possible players who might join the class recently announced top schools and commitment dates — four-star athlete Micahi Danzi will be committing on July 15, while five-star offensive tackle Jonathan Daniels will be choosing between the Kentucky Wildcats, Georgia Bulldogs and Florida State:

You can catch up on all the latest Florida State football recruiting news and pick the brains of our recruiting staff in the latest edition of our recruiting thread.

Florida State 2024 recruiting class

QUARTERBACK: 4 star Luke Kromenhoek (GA)

RUNNING BACK: 4 star Kam Davis (GA)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Camdon Frier (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Tawaski “TJ” Abrams (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Lawayne McCoy (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star BJ Gibson (GA)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Elijah Moore (MD)

TIGHT END: 5 star Landen Thomas (GA)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star DD Holmes (DC)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Jamorie Flagg (FL)

LINEBACKER: 3 star Jayden Parrish (FL)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 4 star Ricky Knight III

DEFENSIVE BACK: 3 star CJ Heard (GA)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 3 star Rydarrius “Red” Morgan (AL)

KICKER: 3 star Jake Weinberg (FL)

Football

Does FSU have a top-five receiver room heading into 2023? PFF’s Max Chadwick believes so, ranking them No. 5 behind the Ohio State Buckeyes, Texas Longhorns, Washington Huskies and Georgia Bulldogs:

No receiving corps in the country benefited from the transfer portal more than Florida State’s this offseason. The Seminoles first brought in Jaheim Bell from South Carolina, who’s a top-five tight end in the country. Since 2021, his 2.60 yards per route run trails only Brock Bowers among Power Five tight ends with at least 275 receiving snaps. Then, Keon Coleman transferred in from Michigan State after placing sixth among Big Ten receivers in yards (798) and fifth in touchdowns (seven) in 2022.

This is in addition to Johnny Wilson, who’s a top-10 wide receiver in college football. He’s a massive receiver at 6-foot-7, 235 pounds who led all Power Five wideouts last year with 3.36 yards per route run. Winston Wright Jr. missed all of last season due to injuries from a car accident, but he tied for second among Big 12 receivers in 2021 with 13 forced missed tackles on receptions while at West Virginia. While not a wide receiver or tight end, Lawrance Toafili paced all ACC running backs last year with 268 receiving yards.

Florida State also brings in Hykeem Williams, who was the No. 4 wide receiver recruit in the 2023 class.

Basketball

Florida State women’s basketball head coach Brooke Wyckoff has added Desma Thomas Bateast to her coaching staff:

“Desma brings a wealth of coaching experience, knowledge of the game and passion for the development of student-athletes to our staff,” Wyckoff said. “She has played an important role as part of successful, winning programs at every stop along her coaching journey, and as a former player at the college and professional level, she knows exactly what it takes to compete at the highest level as an athlete.

“I am excited not just for the knowledge and experience Desma brings to our program but for the excellent role model she will be for our players and the impact she will have on our fans and supporters.”

Bateast’s most recent stop was a successful one as assistant coach at Cleveland State, helping the Vikings record their second 20-win season in three years, winning the Horizon League title and making an appearance at the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Bateast had a large oversight in recruiting, opponent scouting, game preparation and game strategy in her three years with Cleveland State.

From 2017-20, she served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Florida Atlantic where she helped engineer the second-best turnaround for a coaching staff in a debut season at an NCAA Division I program. The Owls had their highest scoring average in several years at 70.6 points per game in that 2017-18 season. Bateast had a focus on skill development for the guards and wings at FAU, among several of her responsibilities.

She was part of a successful run at USF from 2013-17, helping the nationally-ranked Bulls make four postseason appearances and three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. She coordinated all aspects of recruiting, served as the academic liaison, had a skill emphasis on point guard play and assisted the head coach with in-game strategies during her time in Tampa. The Bulls made three consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship appearances.

Bateast has also coached at FIU, Rhode Island and Dillard University. She brings WNBA experience as well having served as a scout for the New York Liberty in the 2005-06 season.

Bateast was a standout student-athlete at Miami, being a two-time All-BIG EAST selection and an inductee into the UM Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. She graduated as the program’s all-time leader in 3-point field goals made and attempted, racking up 1,284 total points and helping the Hurricanes to consecutive BIG EAST Conference and tournament titles.

Following her collegiate career, Bateast played professionally for five years.

All Sports

In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Florida State University researchers lay out a model that explains how these simple tubular structures —called chemical gardens — grow upward, form different shapes and how they go from a flexible, self-healing material to a more brittle one:

Since the mid-1600s, chemists have been fascinated with brightly colored, coral-like structures that form by mixing metal salts in a small bottle.

Until now, researchers have been unable to model how chemical gardens work and the patterns and rules that govern their formation.

Typically, chemical gardens form when metal salt particles are put in a silicate solution. The dissolving salt reacts with the solution to create a semipermeable membrane that ejects upward in the solution, creating a biological-looking structure, similar to coral.

Scientists observed chemical gardens for the first time in 1646 and for years have been fascinated with their interesting formations. The chemistry is related to the formation of hydrothermal vents and the corrosion of steel surfaces where insoluble tubes can form.

Inspiration for the mathematical model developed by Steinbock, along with postdoctoral researcher Bruno Batista and graduate student Amari Morris, came from experiments that steadily injected a salt solution into a larger volume of silicate solution between two horizontal plates. These showed distinct growth modes and that the material starts off as stretchy, but as it ages, the material becomes more rigid and tends to break.

The confinement between two layers allowed the researchers to simulate a number of different shape patterns, some looking like flowers, hair, spirals and worms.

In their model, the researchers described how these patterns emerge over the course of the chemical garden’s development. Salt solutions can vary a lot in chemical makeup, but their model explains the universality in formation.

For example, the patterns can consist of loose particles, folded membranes, or self-extending filaments. The model also validated observations that fresh membranes expand in response to microbreaches, demonstrating the material’s self-healing capabilities.