Crumity plays at Tallahassee Lincoln, a few miles from campus, and has taken multiple visits to FSU along with camping there more than once. He still left the Seminoles off his top 10, which included in-state rival Miami.

This isn't an isolated data point. FSU's 2027 class ranks just No. 57 nationally with 13 commits, only four of them from Florida, and Norvell's top in-state target in that class checks in at just No. 46 in the state.

Jimbo Fisher remains the last FSU coach to land a top-10 recruiting class nationally. The in-state pipeline, once an FSU advantage by default, has become a genuine weakness under Norvell.

Crumity himself ranks No. 322 in the 2028 class and top-50 in Florida, not a blue-chip name FSU can't compete for. Losing a recruit this reachable, this close to home, is the part that should worry the fan base most.

Kennedy is a former high school track and basketball athlete (a 6-foot-6 high jump, a 20-foot-1 long jump) who came to football late and still drew Power 4 interest. At Texas A&M he carved out a sub-package role as both an edge rusher and a mug linebacker on passing downs, totaling 40 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and four passes defended over three seasons.

The efficiency numbers are the real sell. Kennedy pressured the quarterback at a 19.5 percent clip last season, 12th nationally among Power 4 defenders, even though his overall win rate ranked far lower. That's a player who wins in flashes rather than snap after snap.

Tony White's defense ranked 11th nationally in sack rate (8.7 percent) last season without a true speed rusher on the roster, generating pressure through scheme instead. Kennedy is the closest thing FSU has to that missing piece, and there's no real backup plan if he doesn't pan out.

If Kennedy's production scales up with more reps, it changes what White can dial up on passing downs. If it doesn't, FSU is looking at another season searching for an answer off the edge.

Clark reviewed every offensive lineman drafted in the first three rounds over the last three NFL Drafts, 60 total. Only 12 were transfers, and of those, five came through the JUCO ranks rather than the modern portal, leaving just seven true portal-to-first-three-rounds linemen over three full draft cycles.

Of those 12 transfers, 10 became multi-year starters at their new school rather than one-year rentals. The offensive linemen good enough to get drafted early tend to stay put, and the ones who do transfer usually arrive early enough to develop before they start.

FSU started multiple one-year rental linemen last season, and the 2026 line is shaping up to lean on the portal again under Herb Hand. Clark's numbers suggest that's a tough way to build a line that produces NFL Draft picks.

The fix, per Clark's research, isn't more portal spending. It's identifying and developing high school linemen early enough that they're ready to start by their third or fourth year on campus, the same path nearly every recently drafted offensive lineman actually took.

Alex Philpott, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound right-hander, played his first two seasons at Florida before transferring to South Carolina for his junior year and is now draft-eligible after three college seasons. The Tampa native and Strawberry Crest product was Perfect Game's No. 271 overall recruit and No. 12 RHP in Florida in the 2023 class.

The results haven't matched the pedigree yet, a 6.94 ERA across 94.2 career innings with a 91-49 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but Philpott brings a full five-pitch mix headlined by a mid-90s fastball.

Kevin Savage chose Purdue over Florida State, Auburn, Georgia, Georgia Tech and UCLA. Out of Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, he ranks No. 42 nationally and No. 11 among point guards in the 247Sports Composite.

The miss actually fits how Loucks builds rosters. He's typically prioritized size and length, headlined by 6-foot-11, 328-pound center Marcis Ponder in the 2026 class, and losing an undersized floor general like the 5-foot-11 Savage could push Loucks toward bigger 2027 targets like five-stars Isaiah Hamilton and Bamba Touray.

FSU heads to Hard Rock Stadium on Oct. 17 to face a Miami team that went 13-3 last season and returns a loaded roster despite replacing Carson Beck with Duke transfer Darian Mensah at quarterback. The Hurricanes also break in five new offensive line starters, headlined by five-star true freshman left tackle Jackson Cantwell.

Miami's other headliners are sophomore receiver Malachi Toney, a second-team All-American as a freshman, transfer edge rusher Damon Wilson (nine sacks at Missouri last year), and senior running back Mark Fletcher Jr. FSU trails the all-time series 37-33 and lost the last meeting 28-22.

Tomahawk Nation's Monday countdown had the Seminoles at 54 days from kickoff, with a new Louisville schedule preview up alongside the site's ongoing ranking of FSU's 50 best-ever games, which kicked off this week with the 50-41 range.

ESPN also picked the best player at every jersey number in college football, and FSU landed three selections: Deion Sanders at No. 2 (FSU's career punt return record, 1,429 yards), Charlie Ward at No. 17 (the 1993 Heisman winner who delivered FSU's first national title), and Peter Boulware at No. 58 (19 sacks in his 1996 All-American season).

Ta'Niya Latson led the nation in scoring as a junior at Florida State (25.2 points per game) before transferring to South Carolina for her final year, where she averaged 14.1 points on a career-best 48.6 percent shooting.

A second-round pick the Sparks once called the steal of the draft, Latson managed just 1.8 points across 10 games as she adjusted to a point guard role that wasn't her natural position. She can sign a developmental deal elsewhere or stay with the Sparks organization.