Florida State Recruiting: Seminoles 2019 commits

After a miserable first year in Tallahassee, Willie Taggart is tasked with rebuilding Florida State with one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.

Florida State is annually one of the best teams when it comes to dominating on the recruiting trail. Despite missing a bowl game to snap their 36-year active bowl streak, Willie Taggart has put together a nice recruiting class in his first full year in Tallahassee.

The poor season didn’t hurt recruiting as much as some fans may have thought. The Noles have the second-best class in the ACC, trailing only Clemson. Naturally, trailing Clemson in the recruiting rankings has also resulted in the Tigers passing up Florida State in the ACC hierarchy, so Taggart still has work to go to close that gap.

Florida State sits just outside the top 10 nationally, according to 247Sports Composite Rankings. The rankings are fluid and there will be some more fluctuations between now and National Signing Day on Feb. 6, but the Noles sit in great shape, led by five-star recruit Akeem Dent. The cornerback out of West Palm Beach is the team’s highest-ranked commit. Dent ranks as the No. 33 overall recruit, No. 3 corner and the No. 5 recruit in the state of Florida, where the school annually brings in elite talent.

Joining Webb as part of Florida State’s class is a pair of dynamic safeties who could form a 1-2 punch in the back of the Seminoles defense, Brendon Gant and Travis Jay.

Dent, Jay and Nick Cross didn’t sign during the early signing period so work is still to be done to keep them.

2019 Florida State commits

The 2019 Florida State recruiting class will be counted on making an impact right away as some freshmen will be thrust into early playing duty. Others will redshirt and mature and develop before competing for playing time in 2020 as Taggart begins to cycle in his own players and he loses Jimbo Fisher’s to the NFL Draft and graduation.