Breaking: Florida State Are Pursuing Defensive Line Transfer From SEC Rivals
The Seminoles are pursuing a transfer out of the SEC.
When it comes to the NCAA Transfer Portal, rivalries and past transgressions are normally left in the rear-view mirror. The Seminoles are willing to do their due diligence on just about any player who decides to transfer – even if they used to wear orange and blue or green and orange.
On Thursday morning, Florida State extended a scholarship offer to Florida defensive lineman transfer Chris McClellan. After completing his sophomore season in Gainesville, McClellan elected to explore what the transfer portal had to offer when he made his announcement at the beginning of the week. He was officially listed in the database earlier today and that has led a bunch of schools to already get in contact.
Outside of the Seminoles, McClellan has already reported offers from Auburn, Missouri, Mississippi State, Colorado, and SMU. It’s expected that he’ll be one of the coveted defensive linemen during the winter cycle.
McClellan spent the last two years in Gainesville after joining the program as a top-100 prospect in Billy Napier’s first recruiting class. He’s developed into a rotational piece in Gainesville, appearing in 25 games, with one start, while totaling 46 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, and one fumble recovery. McClellan’s first career start came against the Seminoles and he finished with three total tackles in the defeat.
Florida State is going to need to add a boost to its defensive line with Fabien Lovett, Braden Fiske, and Dennis Briggs all moving on following the 2023 season. The Seminoles aren’t guaranteed to keep junior Darrell Jackson or redshirt sophomore Joshua Farmer on the roster either.
As of now, the program has six scholarship defensive tackles that have eligibility to return during the 2024 season; Jackson, Farmer, redshirt junior Malcolm Ray, redshirt freshman Daniel Lyons, and true freshman KJ Sampson. Three-star prospect Jamorie Flagg will join the team as part of the #Tribe24 recruiting class. It’s possible that Briggs earns an extra year of eligibility after missing the majority of the 2021 season.
Standing at 6-foot-2, 320 pounds, McClellan was regarded as the No. 2 recruit in the state of Oklahoma in the 2022 class. The Sooners joined his transfer recruitment on Thursday afternoon.
The Seminoles are expressing interest in a variety of defensive line transfers early in the 30-day window.
The coach of the year case for FSU football’s Norvell, USF’s Golesh
College football’s award season kicks into high gear Friday night when some of the nation’s top honors are handed out during an ESPN special.
Contenders for The Home Depot Coach of the Year haven’t been announced, but the short list should include Florida State’s Mike Norvell and USF’s Alex Golesh.
Though I’m not involved with that award, I had a vote for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award and the Associated Press’ coach of the year honor. Norvell got my No. 1 spot in both, and I strongly considered Golesh.
Their 2023 performances were among the best in the nation for different reasons. Norvell lived up to championship expectations, and Golesh led one of the biggest turnarounds in the country.
The case for Norvell can be boiled down into one sentence: He won an ACC championship with his third-string quarterback.
There’s more to it, of course. The jump from good to great is hard. Dan Mullen’s Gators thought it was easier to go from four wins to 10 than from 10 to 11. Norvell went from 10 to 13.
One of the signs of great coaching is the ability to win different ways. FSU beat LSU with passing (359 yards, four touchdowns against LSU), beat Virginia Tech with rushing (282 yards) and beat Louisville with defense (188 yards allowed).
When star quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending leg injury, Norvell pivoted to backup Tate Rodemaker — and beat rival Florida by two scores in Gainesville. When Rodemaker was unavailable because of a concussion, Norvell inserted a true freshman with little experience (Brock Glenn) who missed much of the season with a hand injury — and then used a new wrinkle in the run game with more wildcat quarterbacks to beat Louisville by two scores in Charlotte, N.C.
Norvell credited those wins to being a real team that isn’t reliant on any one thing. Numbers bear that out; FSU, Michigan and Georgia were the only teams with their defense, offense and special teams all ranked in the top 10 by ESPN’s SP+ efficiency metrics.
“No matter how you’ve got to do it, no matter what it needs to look like, we find ways to win games,” Norvell said.
That reflects highly of Norvell.
So, too, does another sign of great coaching: the ability to adapt over a game. FSU outscored opponents by 37 points in the first quarter, 54 in the second, 79 in the third and 97 in the fourth. Penn State was the only other team to rank in the top five nationally in second-half scoring offense and defense.
FSU’s defense held both the Gators and Cardinals to negative fourth-quarter yards. No team has done that in back-to-back weeks in the last 20 years, according to ESPN.
The job of a coach is to find a way to win the game. Norvell did it every Saturday with more significant late-season roster issues than any team in the country while excelling in the metrics that differentiate coaches. He earned my vote.
Golesh has a strong case, too, for different reasons. The Bulls won four games in the three years under his predecessor, Jeff Scott. Golesh won six in Year 1.
USF’s five-game win improvement from 2022 was tied for the second-most nationally behind only Northwestern. The Bulls’ lone Football Bowl Subdivision victory under Scott was a win over Temple in 2021. Golesh won five such games.
Golesh also snapped the program’s 19-game road losing streak with wins at Navy and UConn and held national semifinalist Alabama to a season-low 4.77 yards per play in a 17-3 loss that was closer than the final score indicated.
Those points collectively add up to one of the country’s best turnarounds — and coaching jobs.
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