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Yesterday’s Poll Results
Today’s Poll
Should Myles Bailey sign or come back to FSU for a third year?
🏹 Welcome to The Chief Brief! 🏹
Happy Sunday, Seminole!
FSU baseball had a historic weekend at the MLB Draft, five Seminoles heard their names called across two days. On the football side, the Yarborough sweepstakes finally ended, and not in FSU's favor, while Woody Hayes is speaking out about how his firing actually went down. There's also fresh recruiting news at safety and on the hardwood, plus a look at FSU's national ranking and the toughest quarterbacks on the schedule.
📋 In Today's Chief Brief:
🎉 FSU Ties Program Record With Five MLB Draft Picks 🎉 — Mendes, Bailey, Dowd, Thome and Waechter all went in the first three rounds.
💔 DaJohn Yarborough Picks Cal, and It Leaves a Hole FSU Can't Easily Fill 💔 — The 2027 class still doesn't have an offensive lineman.
🎤 Former Voice of Doak Woody Hayes Says He Was Blindsided by His Firing 🎤 — A two-minute phone call ended a 16-year run.
🔝 4-Star Safety Giovanni Tuggle Narrows His List to Five, FSU Included 🔝 — A top-100 national recruit puts FSU alongside Alabama and Clemson.
⏳ Basketball Target Oneal Delancy Nearing a Decision, FSU in the Mix ⏳ — Loucks' style of play is resonating with a top-55 national recruit.
📊 Corey Clark: What FSU's No. 28 Preseason FPI Ranking Actually Means 📊 — Decent, not great, and the schedule is the problem.
📋 Ranking Every Quarterback FSU Has to Face in 2026 📋 — Tony White's defense has its work cut out.
🏆 Ranking FSU's Best-Ever Games: 40-31 🏆 — The countdown rolls on with a Heisman clincher and a Jimbo signature win.
Let's dive in. 🍢
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FSU became just the third program in school history to have three or more players drafted in the first three rounds, joining 2025 and 1992, as five different Seminoles heard their name called across the draft's opening two days.
🥇 The Headliners: Mendes and Bailey (Round 2)
ACC Pitcher of the Year Wes Mendes went 57th overall to the Houston Astros, capping a junior season with 125 strikeouts and a 2.90 ERA across 93 innings and a sweep of All-American and National Pitcher of the Year semifinalist honors. He's the first FSU player drafted by the Astros since 1991.
First baseman Myles Bailey went 75th overall to the Chicago Cubs despite playing just 26 games this year before a season-ending injury. He hit .363 with 13 home runs and a .913 slugging percentage before going down, and finishes his FSU career with 32 home runs and the third-best slugging percentage in program history.
⚾ Dowd Joins Them in Round 3
Center fielder Brayden Dowd went 88th overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks after just one season in Tallahassee following a transfer from USC. He hit .293 with a .456 on-base percentage, leading the team in runs, walks and doubles.
🏫 Two Commits Go Before They Even Arrive on Campus
FSU's incoming high school class took hits too. Shortstop Landon Thome, son of Hall of Famer Jim Thome and Illinois' Gatorade Player of the Year, went 34th overall to the White Sox, while Tampa Jesuit right-hander Kaden Waechter, who posted a 1.15 ERA with 82 strikeouts in 61 innings this spring, went 55th to the Giants. Both now have decisions to make about signing before ever putting on a Seminoles uniform.
Why It Matters: Five picks across two days is a serious haul, but it also means Link Jarrett has real work to do this month. Signing decisions come down to the July 27 deadline, with Bailey's choice between the pros and a return to Tallahassee the biggest one still hanging in the balance. 🍢
The decision FSU had been bracing for all week finally came Saturday night, and it didn't go the Seminoles' way.
📉 The Commitment
The 6-foot-5, 340-pound interior lineman chose Cal over Florida State, Washington and Mississippi State, a result some FSU fans called a mild upset given the buzz around the program's chances. Yarborough was the only offensive lineman to take an official visit to FSU all summer.
🕳️ The Fallout
FSU's 2027 class still doesn't have a single offensive line commit, and with Yarborough gone, there's little realistic hope of landing one this cycle. Between Norvell, Herb Hand and GM John Garrett, the staff whiffed on what was considered the class's best remaining shot at a blue-chip lineman.
The bigger concern: FSU is on pace to start just one homegrown offensive lineman between its 2025 and 2026 rosters, relying almost entirely on the transfer portal to fill a position where high school development typically matters most.
Why It Matters: This is about as close to a genuine setback as the 2027 cycle offers. With the uncertainty hanging over Norvell's job security scaring off top targets, losses like this compound quickly. 🍢
A day after news broke that FSU wouldn't retain him for a 17th season, longtime PA announcer Woody Hayes spoke out about how the news actually reached him.
📞 What Happened
Hayes told WCTV he learned the news in a phone call that lasted under two minutes, with no in-person conversation and no specific explanation beyond going in a new direction. FSU declined to comment when reached by the station.
Hayes remains the PA voice for FSU men's and women's basketball for now, a role he's held for 25 years, though he admitted he's now uneasy about whether that job is safe too. He said he'd take the football job back if FSU offered it.
Why It Matters: However FSU handles the football booth going forward, the manner of Hayes' exit, not the decision itself, is what's resonating with fans right now. It's a small story, but it's fed into a broader sense of frustration with how the athletic department communicates. 🍢
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One of Georgia's top defensive backs is starting to focus his recruitment, and FSU made the cut.
📋 The Finalists
Tuggle, the No. 76 overall player nationally and the No. 7 safety in the country, trimmed his list to FSU, Clemson, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Alabama, though he says he won't commit until next year.
On FSU specifically, Tuggle pointed to the staff's energy on his visit and a strengthening relationship with defensive backs coach Evan Cooper as reasons the Seminoles made the cut over programs like Georgia, Ohio State and Texas A&M, all of whom remain in the picture but outside his top five.
Why It Matters: With a decision still a year away, this is more early positioning than anything concrete, but making a legitimate top five alongside Alabama and Clemson for a top-100 national recruit is a good sign for the program's pitch on the trail. 🍢
A top-55 national recruit says he's close to picking a school, and Luke Loucks' pitch is resonating.
🎯 Where FSU Stands
Delancy, a 6-foot-2 combo guard averaging 17.2 points for Florida's Nike EYBL program, has visited Houston, Florida, Maryland, Ohio State and FSU, and plans to decide after Peach Jam but before school starts.
He specifically praised Loucks' style of play, fast pace, heavy three-point volume, downhill attacking, as a fit for his own game, putting FSU in real contention alongside four programs with more established track records.
Why It Matters: Loucks landing a top-55 talent in his second cycle would be a strong follow-up to a top-16 2026 class. Worth watching closely over the next few weeks. 🍢
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ESPN released its preseason Football Power Index, and On3's Corey Clark thinks the No. 28 slot is a fair, if unspectacular, read on this FSU team.
📈 The Case For Believing It
FSU sits one spot behind Louisville and one ahead of Vanderbilt, and Clark argues the roster has genuine talent, especially on defense, to match that ranking. Last year's team finished at No. 33 in FPI despite a losing record, suggesting the underlying numbers were better than the win total showed.
⚠️ The Problem: The Schedule
FSU faces eight of FPI's top 36 teams this season, including Miami (7), Alabama (8), Florida (18), Clemson (19), SMU (24) and Louisville (27). Clark's read: FSU could play like a top-30 team and still finish 6-6 or 7-5 simply because of who's on the schedule.
Why It Matters: Clark's bottom line is that this team isn't hopeless, and a few close games breaking the other way, like they mostly did in 2022, is the difference between a bowl season and another disappointment. 🍢
Chopchat's Josh Yourish ranked the 12 likely starting quarterbacks on FSU's schedule, and Tony White's defense has its work cut out.
🔝 The Toughest Tests
Miami's Darian Mensah tops the list as a legitimate NFL prospect who upgraded Duke's offense last season and now heads a Miami team FSU visits Oct. 17. NC State's CJ Bailey (No. 2) and SMU's Kevin Jennings (No. 4), who FSU opens ACC play against, both rate as tougher covers than their name recognition suggests.
📊 The Rest of the Gauntlet
Alabama's Keelon Russell, Pitt's Mason Heintschel and Louisville's Lincoln Kienholz round out the top seven, while Clemson's Christopher Vizzina, taking over for Cade Klubnik, checks in at No. 9. The easier assignments come against Central Arkansas and New Mexico State, whose starters rank at the bottom of the list.
Why It Matters: FSU faces seven of Yourish's top 10 ACC quarterbacks this season. However good Tony White's defense turns out to be, this schedule is going to test it every single week. 🍢
Tomahawk Nation's fan-voted countdown of the 50 best games in program history continued this week, working through wins that established firsts and cemented rivalries.
🎬 The Highlights
The stretch includes the 2005 inaugural ACC Championship win over Virginia Tech (No. 40), Chris Weinke's 521-yard, Heisman-cementing performance in the 54-7 Bowden Bowl 2 rout of Clemson (No. 39), and Jimbo Fisher's signature first win, a 45-17 demolition of Miami in 2010 (No. 36).
Also featured: the 1962 upset at Georgia that birthed the Sod Cemetery tradition (No. 35), the chaotic 1998 win over Florida that produced Peter Warrick's iconic trick-play touchdown pass (No. 34), and last year's season-opening upset of Alabama (No. 31), which reads a little differently now given how the rest of 2025 played out.
Why It Matters: It's a fun midsummer reminder of just how deep FSU's history runs, and proof this program has authored plenty of signature moments even during down stretches like the one it's in now. 🍢
And that’s a wrap!
Thanks for making The Chief Brief part of your Sunday.
Rounds 5-20 of the MLB Draft wrap up today, so expect more Seminoles to hear their names called before it's over. We'll have full reaction to the weekend, plus whatever fall camp news breaks, in tomorrow's edition.
