Florida State football: 5 blue-chip recruits most likely to sign with the Seminoles

The Florida State football recruiting class would be loaded if they can get these recruits.

Can Mike Norvell get Florida State football back on track under his leadership?

Norvell replaces a job-hopping mess known as Willie Taggart as the head coach of the Florida State Seminoles football program. Florida State is seen as a blue-blood program in the ACC but hasn’t yielded an elite team in the better part of a decade. Fortunately, there is a ton of talent in the Sunshine State for the ‘Noles to capitalize on and rebuild a winning culture in Tallahassee.

Entering the latter part of July 2020, Florida State has the No. 21 recruiting class in the country and the No. 5 class in the ACC. While it may not be where they want to stay forever, a program has to start somewhere when it’s rebuilding under a new regime. Florida State has 14 hard commits, with four of them being four-stars, including top-100 player Branden Jennings from Jacksonville.

Though the ‘Noles won’t challenge for ACC Atlantic supremacy with the juggernaut Clemson Tigers, look for Norvell’s squad to challenge the Louisville Cardinals for second place in the division. It might take a year or two, but Florida State can definitely get on the same level as what the top half of the ACC Coastal looks like with Miami, North Carolina and Virginia Tech.

Right now, Florida State isn’t ready to compete with the likes of Florida or Miami in-state for top-tier talent within their borders. Norvell will need to get guys who may end up playing for UCF, South Florida or FAU if they were to stay home to play their college ball. Little becomes big over time, but Florida State can set the tone with a solid 2021 recruiting class under new coach Norvell.

These five recruits are very likely to sign with Florida State football.

Even though he’s right in Louisiana Tech’s backyard in Ruston, Louisiana, four-star running back Ke’Travion Hargrove envisions himself playing at the Power 5 level. Hargrove is the No. 10 player from Louisiana, the No. 16 running back in his recruiting class and the No. 331 prospect overall, according to the 247SportsComposite.

Hargrove has 14 official offers but is looking predominantly at three Power 5 programs: Florida State, the Penn State Nittany Lions and the South Carolina Gamecocks. It is interesting that he’s looking at one ACC school in Florida State, one Big Ten school in Penn State and one SEC school in South Carolina. Florida State might be seen as a slight leader to him of the three, but we’ll see.

Recruiting coordinator and running backs coach David Johnson is serving as Hargrove’s primary recruiter. At his previous employer with the Tennessee Volunteers, Johnson secured several four-star recruits at all many different position groups. With Johnson being a Louisiana native and a running backs coach, this might give him a leg up in getting Hargrove to come to Tallahassee.

As long as the LSU Tigers don’t offer him or he doesn’t want to play at the Group of 5 level at any of the other great schools in his home state, Florida State has to be near the top of the list in terms of preferred destinations for him. Getting in on an ACC blue-blood like Florida State that’s sure to bounce back under Norvell could be a very wise decision for Hargrove to make here.