Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Florida State reloads with Top 5 recruiting class


National champion Florida State added two highly touted receivers and one of the top running backs in the country on national signing day. The Seminoles put together another highly ranked recruiting class and brought in plenty of offensive talent to surround Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston.
Both Rivals.com and Scout.com ranked the 28-man class No. 4 in the country while ESPN ranked it No. 3.
Receivers Ermon Lane (6-foot-3, 200 pounds) and Travis Rudolph (6-2, 190), will join already enrolled running back Dalvin Cook, Florida's 2013 Mr. Football, as the next wave of offensive skill players at Florida State. Rudolph is ranked the No. 1 receiver by Rivals.com while Lane is rated a five-star recruit by both Rivals.com and Scout.com.
The Seminoles also signed seven offensive linemen, and they went big. None of the seven are listed under 6-foot-5 with Kareem Are measuring 6-6, 350 pounds and Roderick Johnson at 6-7, 330 pounds. The group averages 313 pounds.
Florida State has four returning starters on the line, but all are expected to be gone in 2015.
''It's one of the most complete classes we've been able to sign,'' coach Jimbo Fisher said. ''We hit needs all the way across the board and filled it with great players and at every position across the board we got somebody.
''The group has a lot of size, a lot of length, some very good football players and multi-positional. There are guys who can play two, three or even four positions.''
Strong-armed quarterback J.J. Cosentino was the lone signal-caller in the group. Fisher needed at least one more quarterback after Jacob Coker transferred to Alabama.
Seven defensive linemen signed Wednesday with 6-2, 300-pound defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi headlining the group.

National rankings (Rivals 4; Scout 4).
Best in class: Dalvin Cook, RB, Miami Central HS
Best of the rest: Ermon Lane, WR, Homestead (Fla.) HS; Travis Rudolph, WR, Cardinal Newman (Fla.) HS
Late addition: Ja'Von Harrison, WR, Kathleen (Fla.) HS, had been committed to Virginia Tech.
One that got away: Malik McDowell, DE, Southfield (Mich.) HS.

NOTE: ''Travis Rudolph and Ermon Lane I think our big-time players,'' Fisher said. ''But I think Ja'Von (Harrison) is right there in that same caliber of them. And then when you get three of them, so spread the field, inside guys, outside guys, they're all big-bodied guys. But the big-bodied guys that have the capability and have the quickness to go inside, which is rare.''

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