We just wrapped up watching FSU's final practice availability of the week before Saturday's game vs. Charleston Southern. Here are the updates from the day's work:

• The offense started pretty well during the first 11-on-11 period, a one-minute drill. Luke Kromenhoek led a great drive down the field with limited time, getting off quick passes, scrambling decisively and doing well to consistently get the clock stopped and avoid negative plays. Behind a pair of catches by Landen Thomas, one by BJ Gibson and one by Amaree Williams (with one second left on the clock), he set the stage for Ryan Fitzgerald to make a 47-yard field goal that gave FSU's offense points out of a challenging situation.
• Outside of that nice start, however, it wasn't the best day for FSU's offense. There were moments of success like a leaping catch by Lawayne McCoy in the back corner of the end zone in 1-on-1s, a diving catch by Williams for a touchdown in goal-line work and a few deep catches from Elijah Moore on nice throws in 7-on-7 pass-skelly work. On the whole, though, the offense never really got going again after that strong start to the day's work.
• In the second 11-on-11 period, a few NFL hopefuls made some flashy plays with scouts from a handful of professional teams watching. Darrell Jackson had a "sack" on the first play of this period, Pat Payton had a great effort play to force a fumble on a screen pass on the second play of the period and then Payton batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage on the third play of the period. Byron Turner Jr. also had a "sack" later in this period of good-on-good work.
• Edwin Joseph continues to demonstrate good coverage and ball skills on a consistent basis in practice. He had a pair of pass breakups in 1-on-1s, putting himself in great position and denying the catch by knocking the ball out of the air. Kevin Knowles II had an interception on the first play of pass-skelly work and Grady Kelly added a batted pass of his own in red-zone situational work and Demarco Ward had a PBU on a pass over the middle in pass-skelly work.
• Earl Little Jr., who continues to grow more comfortable working at safety, made an impressively physical play during goal-line work. On a toss play to Lawrance Toafili, he stopped the running back, who had a head of steam charging towards the goal line, with an impressive stone-wall tackle to deny him a touchdown on the play.

Mallory has told me that they are in the preliminary process of setting up an official visit to Florida State for one of the final two weekends.

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Story Link: Florida State offers three-star West Virginia commit

The Florida State football program continues to struggle on the high school recruiting front. The Seminoles have lost two commitments, QB Tramell Jones and OL Daniel Pierre Louis, to Florida in less than seven days and the challenges on the recruiting front continue to mount for HC Mike Norvell and his transitionary staff.

Max Redmon-DB

On Tuesday night, FSU defensive back commit Max Redmon announced he would be taking an official visit to Mississippi State this weekend. This is surprising for one reason. Out of the 12 commitments that FSU currently has for its 2025 recruiting class, no one single prospect has been on FSU's campus more during his recruiting process than Redmon. In fact, yesterday on our recruiting pod, just minutes before Redmon made in known that he would be taking a trip to Starkville, both Fish and I said we believed that out of the prospects committed to sign with FSU that Redmon was the least likely to decommit. Redmon has been committed to FSU since July.

Solomon Thomas-OG

Thomas remains committed to FSU as of this post. I did speak with a source familiar with his recruitment by Florida and they believe there is a chance that former FSU offensive line coach Alex Atkins could be joining the Gators staff in an analyst after the season is over. I have not been able to confirm this via second source, so for now it is more speculative than it is certain. However, the same source was the person who told me that both Tramell Jones and Daniel Pierre Louis would be flipping to Florida before it hit the rumor mill. Atkins was the lead recruiter for Thomas, so his joining the Gators staff would certainly benefit them in helping land Thomas who is also being heavily courted by both LSU and South Carolina.

Byron Louis-RB

I spoke with one of my Rivals counterparts yesterday who says that things might get interesting with Byron Louis over the last three weeks of this recruiting cycle. I spoke another source this morning that indicated he believes that Louis will take an official visit to Florida this weekend. The first source I spoke with believes that Georgia could get back involved with Louis before it is all said and done. The Bulldogs currently already have two RBs committed for this recruiting cycle so it would seem unlikely at this point that he would join the UGA class as the third running back. The source familiar with his Florida recruitment believes the Gators have a good shot at flipping Louis if they do indeed get him on campus for an OV this weekend.


Carter Smith-QB

Smith did take his official visit to Wisconsin this past weekend. The Osceola recruiting team all have FutureCast in for Smith to end up in Tallahassee and nothing has changed in that regard since his visit. In fact, Fish said yesterday on our recruiting pod that he has since Smith's visit to Wisconsin that he is still expected to end up signing with the Seminoles.

Kevin Wynn-DT

Wynn is another FSU commit to keep an eye on. There has been a lot of conversation about Wynn decommitting and flipping to South Carolina. Nick Carlisle said on our podcast yesterday that the Gamecocks are the team to look out for and he believes he will flip to the Gamecocks. One other recruiting service has also predicted the same flip. He was reportedly on the South Carolina campus last weekend for an unofficial visit.