following Bob Braman’s retirement. Let’s Go Noles!!

Four-star OL Lamont Rogers is set to announce his commit at noon on Saturday. The Mesquite, TX product took an official visit to Florida State on June 12. He also took OV's to Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and SMU.

Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma are believed to be the leaders heading into his announcement. There are three FutureCast in for Rogers on the Rivals network with two FC's for Missouri and one for Texas. One of the two other recruiting services gives Missouri the best chance to land Rogers while the other has no predictions in for Rogers.

FSU would appear to be a longshot for Lamont Rogers. But he has the Seminoles among his final six and will commit on Saturday:

We were able to speak with Devin at the Rivals Five-star last week.
https://floridastate.rivals.com/new...in-carter-as-he-enjoys-his-recruiting-process

Let’s welcome Cal, Stanford and SMU.

FSU will now have a platform in Dallas and the Bay Area. Not too bad when you consider the markets we’re already in like Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte and Miami.

Opportunities for new partnerships, increased revenue and influential reach.

Go Noles!

There were 25 Power Five commitments on Thursday:

FSU sports information:

Florida State women’s swimming and diving team student-athlete Gloria Muzito and former men’s team member Max McCusker were selected by their home countries to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Swimming at their first Olympics, Muzito will represent Uganda in the women’s 100-meter free, while McCusker will compete for Ireland in the men’s 4x100 medley relay.

A national record holder in the women’s 100 free (56.01), Muzito was the bronze medalist at the African Games in 2024 after she competed at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar. Muzito is also a part of the mixed 4x100 free and medley relay national records.

A rising senior, Muzito will serve as a team captain for 2024-25. She is a two-time NCAA relay swimmer and is a part of the 400 free that set the program record in 2022 at 3:15.70. In 2023, Muzito swam the fourth-fastest time in program history in the 100 free at 48.92.

McCusker swam a time of 51.90 at the 2024 Irish Olympic Trials, setting the national record in the 100 fly.

In February, McCusker helped the Irish swim in the final of the 4x100 medley relay at the World Aquatic Championships in Doha, Qatar, placing seventh. He also competed individually, finishing 17th in the 100 fly (52.21).

While at Florida State (2018-22), McCusker captured eight All-American honors and anchored the 200 free relay to gold at the 2020 ACC Championships. McCusker swam the fly leg of the 200 medley relay that set the current program record in 2022 at 1:23.15.

Muzito and McCusker will join Peter Varjasi (Germany), Emma Terebo (France) and Juilo Horrego (Honduras) in Paris.

A total of 29 athletes with ties to the program have made the Olympics, representing 22 different countries since 1972. The Seminoles have been represented at every Games since 1996 and contributed athletes in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1988.

The swimming portion of the Olympics will start on July 27 at the Paris La Defense Arena.

2026 safety prospect Tedarius Hughes is expected to commit to FSU in the not-so-distant future. Hughes is from Homestead (Fla.) South Dade HS and was a standout at FSU's Elite Camp in June were he was offered by the Seminoles.

Both Fish and I have FutureCast for Hughes to FSU and sources have indicated his commitment could come as early as tonight.

His list of offers includes Louisville, Syracuse, Miss. State, Nebraska and USF.

Login to view embedded media

Pretty cool video introduction and a lot of details on Cal, SMU and Stanford who will begin competition this fall.

ACC Welcomes Stanford, Cal and SMU

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

Onyi Echegini will represent Nigeria in the Olympics

Login to view embedded media

Four-star TE prospect Hollis Davidson announced at 11am this morning that he has re-committed to Auburn.

Robin Williams as our flag

Login to view embedded media

DJU and Malik Benson mentioned prominently:

ESPN's Mark Schlabach reports that 16 former men's college basketball players, including Kansas stars Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins, UConn guard Ryan Boatright and Arizona guard Jason Terry, have sued the NCAA and multiple conferences for the unauthorized use of their name, image and likeness in March Madness highlights.

Consider this: According to Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA spent $68 million on legal fees in 2020 defending its amateurism rules, including $34.8 million in accrued fees related to the NCAA v. Alston case. That case, of course, went before the Supreme Court and resulted in a 9-0 defeat for the NCAA.

The NCAA spent $61.5 million in legal fees in the year that ended in August 2023, according to the organization’s most recent 990 tax filing, as it continued to defend its business model in the face of multiple antitrust lawsuits. The $61.5 million is the organization’s second-highest annual total in at least the last 12 years, and likely its second highest total ever. The NCAA reported $53 million in fiscal 2022, $52.5 million in 2021 and $67.7 million in 2020 to defend its amateurism rules. Going back a decade—before the bulk of the antitrust lawsuits took hold—it was typical for the organization to spend less than $10 million.

The NCAA just settled a $2.8 Billion settlement in hopes of settling the NCAA v House lawsuit, with other cases stacked up like airplanes at LAX.

This Supreme Court has been quite clear -- the NCAA's collegiate business model is illegal. The Court is forcing change.

Another lawsuit

Login to view embedded media
Sense is that FSU has been trending for a good amount of time already and as a decision nears today I like the chances for Atkins and the FSU staff with this former UF commit

Feels like a long time coming

Four-star offensive guard prospect Peyton Joseph and four-star TE Hollis Davidson are both expected to announce which school they will commit to on Thursday.

Joseph is choosing between FSU and Memphis, while Davidson is choosing between FSU and Florida. Joseph is planning on announcing at 5pm and Davidson hasn't made announcement, at least publicly, about what time he plans to announce.

Both Fish and I, along with the publisher of the Memphis Rivals site, have FutureCast in for Joseph to commit to FSU. Joseph has moved up the board with the commitments of guards Rowan Byrne (Clemson) and Max Buchanan (Miami). And while he might not have been a take for FSU prior to those two commitments, he is now. Memphis got involved with Joseph after offering his high school teammate Antwann Hill who is committed to the Tigers as a quarterback. Joseph spent a ton of time in Tallahassee this spring. He took in three practices in one week in April.


Davidson's recruitment has seen some interesting developments over the last couple of months. He decommitted from Auburn in early May after committing to the Tigers in February. Once he decommitted from the Tigers, he found himself the FSU campus three times, twice for unofficial visits and once for his official visit on June 21. FSU was thought to be the leader for Davidson after his official visit to Florida on June 7. However, his official visit to Auburn, which was set for the fall after his decommitment, got moved to June 14. Since then, the rumors have been that the Tigers have made up the ground they lost to FSU during that time.

Both Fish and I had FutureCast in for FSU and Davidson but we both now project Auburn to land his commitment as does Rivals National Recruiting Analyst Sam Spiegelman. Like, FSU, the Tigers already have a tight end committed to their 2025 recruiting class, so everything is equal there.

I do believe that this is a very close race between FSU and Auburn and it would not surprise at all if he chooses FSU. He really seems to enjoy his relationship with Norvell and Thomas. Secondly, you don't see a ton of decommits then a recommit to the same school. This would one futurecast I would be happy to get wrong. I think he is one of the most explosive tight end prospects in the entire 2025 class and could be a big weapon at the college level in the passing game.

You may not have seen this summary of our Spring Sports. It includes 4 conference players the year; 3 coaches of the year recognitions; 67 players named to the ACC All Academic teams; National women's amateur golfer of the year; etc, etc


how 'bout them Noles?

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Here's the board post from the Clemson Rival's site that I think poses some good questions about how we view and evaluate recruiting:
Broadly speaking, it's easy for fan bases to carry a myopic view of recruiting because they are focused on their team's wins and losses.
In light of Clemson's recent returns -- in which national champ Michigan also lost a lineman to Wisconsin, and Miami squandered another local wideout -- Tuesday's big news jumped out.
Jesup (Ga.) Wayne County four-star linebacker Tavion Wallace committed to Arkansas in what arguably qualifies as the stunner of the summer so far.

This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.

Four-star LB Tavion Wallace is set to announce which school he will commit to on Tuesday. The Wayne County (Ga.) prospect will decide between Florida State, Georgia, Florida and Arkansas and plans to make his pledge public at 6:30 PM. The Osceola's Pat Burnham and Charles Fishbein have FutureCast in for Wallace to commit to the Seminoles. FSU was the last of the four schools to receive an official visit from Wallace. He said after his trip to Tallahassee that the Seminoles getting his last visit was intentional.

Here is some of what Wallace had to say after his official visit just a week and a half ago.

"It went amazing. Florida State, it's always held a special place in my heart," said Wallace on June 23 after his visit. "This visit, it went amazing."

"I would say the people, I've been come coming here for over a year now and they've been consistent, and the love has been the same and it's been real, that consistency," said Wallace about what stands out about FSU. "That's big in my recruitment, that's one thing I'm looking for when I chose a school."

Wallace was also asked if there was a reason he saved his official visit until the last weekend of June.

"For sure it was, when I told Coach (Mike) Norvell I've got to have this one last to end it off with a blast because my commitment date July 2nd, I want to end it up off the right way."

Javion Hilson on the list:

Via FSU sports information:

Caylan Arnold - Florida Vibe
Caylan Arnold is enjoying another good season in the circle with the Florida Vibe. Arnold has pitched in 11.2 innings and has posted a 3.00 ERA with 15 strikeouts compared to just five walks. Opponents are hitting just .217 against her. The Vibe are currently 6-3 this season.

Angelee Bueno - Sarasota Circus
After one season with the Seminoles, Angelee Bueno is currently competing for the Sarasota Circus in the Florida Gulf Coast League for softball. In 14 games this season, Bueno is hitting .276 in 29 at-bats for the Circus. Bueno has hit three home runs and driven in six home runs while scoring five runs. Bueno holds a .621 slugging percentage and a .382 on-base percentage.

Devyn Flaherty - Texas Monarchs
A staple in the Florida State softball program for the past five years, Devyn Flaherty has moved on to her professional career and signed with the Texas Monarchs as part of the Women's Professional Fastpitch League. The GM for the Monarchs is FSU softball alum Alex Powers. Flaherty has started every single game for the Monarchs and holds a perfect fielding percentage while recording three hits. The Monarchs are in their inaugural season and currently hold a 5-3 record.

Mimi Gooden - Manatee Squeeze
Mimi Gooden is also in the Florida Gulf Coast League and is on the Manatee Squeeze squad. Gooden has pitched 21.1 innings for the Squeeze while recording 10 strikeouts and has helped the Squeeze to six wins so far this summer.

Kalei Harding - Athletes Unlimited
One of the top hitters in FSU Softball took on Athletes Unlimited in June as part of the AUX Pro Softball League in Wichita, Kansas. Kalei Harding had a great start to her professional career and came up in many big moments and continued to have great success at the plate. Harding hit .315 in 12 games and drove in 17 runs including a record-breaking performance of nine RBI in her final game of the AUX season where she hit a grand slam and a three-run home run in a 3-for-5 showing. Harding finished 18th overall on the AUX leaderboard and ranked sixth among rookies with 950 points. Harding will play in the Athletes Unlimited Championship Series in Rosemont, Illinois, from July 26-August 25.

Elizabeth Mason - Texas Smoke
Mason is in her second season with the Texas Smoke which is a member of the Women's Professional Fastpitch league. The Smoke are 7-1 so far this season and Mason has continued to be consistent at the plate. Mason was 2-for-6 on opening weekend against the Texas Monarchs and also picked up an RBI-single in the Smoke's sweep against the Coastal Bend Tidal Wave.

Kathryn Sandercock - SGH Galaxy (Japan) - Athletes Unlimited
Kathryn Sandercock just wrapped up her second season in Japan as a member of the SGH Galaxy Stars as a part of Japan Diamond Softball League. The SGH Galaxy Stars are based in Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan. Sandercock was one of the top pitchers in the entire league this past season as she posted a 1.41 ERA in 64.1 innings which ranked fifth in the entire league. Sandercock posted a 6-3 record in 13 appearances. Sandercock recorded 46 strikeouts compared to just 15 walks. The SGH Galaxy Stars finished second in the West Division with a 12-6 record. Sandercock will return to the U.S. and play in the Athletes Unlimited Championship Series in Rosemont, Illinois, from July 26-August 25.

Jessi Warren - Athletes Unlimited - US Women's National Team
Jessi Warren has continued to make waves in the professional game as she has spent her summer playing for Athletes Unlimited as well as making her debut on the United State Women's National Team. Warren continued to make jaw-dropping plays at third base during the AUX season as she was named the AUX Defensive MVP for the second consecutive season. In the batter's box, Warren continued to come through as she drove in eight runs in 12 games including a walk-off home run on June 13. Warren also made her debut appearance with the US National Team as they prepared for the WBSC World Cup Finals in Italy from July 15-21. In two games with the United States, Warren went 3-for-4 with six RBI including a triple in the fifth inning that scored the game-winning runs for the U.S. In the second game, Warren went 2-for-2 with four RBI which included a home run and a double. Warren will be back in action this week as Team USA will play No. 2 ranked Japan in a three-game series on July 4, July 6 and July 8 in the 2024 Japan All-Star Series. Following the WBSC World Cup Finals, Warrant will play in the Athletes Unlimited Championship Series in Rosemont, Illinois, from July 26-August 25.

Danielle Watson - Florida Vibe
Watson is in her second season with the Florida Vibe. The former FSU standout has not pitched yet this season.