Update, 9:09 AM Friday, February 7th: Branden Jennings has indeed committed to Florida State. He’s the fifth official commitment for #Tribe21 but the third one accepted by Mike Norvell’s staff following the commitments of quarterback Luke Altmyer and defensive end Joshua Farmer.

Read the scouting report below to see why FSU fans should be so excited about this one. Long story short; he’s a total stud:

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2020’s National Signing Day for FSU has officially come and gone. Coach Mike Norvell and the FSU staff were relentless in their recruiting efforts, but the Early Signing Period and coaching transition presented too many obstacles to allow the Seminoles to land a top 20 class. The FSU staff, led by Norvell, will now set its eyes on returning Florida State back into the top-10 team recruiting rankings for the 2021 class— a feat which hasn’t been accomplished by the Seminoles since 2017.

Enter linebacker Branden Jennings. A top-40 player in the nation, and a top-5 player at his position. Jennings recently visited Tallahassee for FSU’s first 2021 Junior Day, and on February 2nd, the talented junior announced he would make his college decision today. If FSU is to land Jennings, it will have to win out over 30 schools, including Clemson, Miami, Notre Dame, LSU, and several others.

What can FSU fans expect if Jennings were to commit to Florida State? Playing his high school ball at Sandalwood in Jacksonville, Florida, Jennings has been an absolute nightmare for opposing offenses. He’s landed on the All-First Coast team two years in a row. His sophomore season, he racked up over 130 tackles with 6 sacks. He followed that up with over 120 tackles, 8 sacks, an interception, and a fumble recovery this past year. To call Jennings a ball hawk would be selling him short. As shown by his numbers and his film, he covers the entire field for his defense.

Jennings is 6’3, 220 lbs. and is college-ready as a junior. His Twitter handle is a play-on Godzilla, king of the monsters, which is an accurate description of his style of play. His hits are violent and draw “oohs and ahhs” from the crowd. He’s a leader on the field and has potential to be an instant impact his freshman year.

Jennnigs is the son of former FSU all-conference linebacker, Bradley Jennings.

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Scouting report:

I have two words to describe Jennings: snot bubbles. Jennings has bad intentions every time he steps on the field and often takes his anger out on an opposing ball carrier.

The first trait you see on the field is his size and length. Jennings is an imposing LB, as he has NFL size for the position. He uses this size and length well when taking on a blocker in the hole, scraping and taking on an offensive linemen, or decleating a RB. He does not sacrifice much speed or athleticism for a LB his size.

Jennings has fantastic instincts for the LB position. You see clips of him getting skinny on a blitz or spot dropping and coverage and he finds himself being successful time and time again. This is a player who has clearly grown up around football his whole life. Blitzing and spot dropping are not easy skills for all players, but Jennings is great at it.

Finally, Jennings plays with great leverage on the football. He rarely finds himself in the same hole as another defender, scraping well and working downhill constantly. The thing I like most is he is an outside-in defender and fits very well on ball carriers not allowing for cutbacks, spin moves, or any other moves. This is a LB who makes plays consistently because he is in the right place.

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