As speculation swirled about Florida State coach Mike Norvell replacing Nick Saban at Alabama last month, TJ Ferguson found himself looking at it from the opposite side. He was in the transfer portal considering a move from ‘Bama to FSU.
“Coach Norvell’s message to me was just: ‘I’m here,’” Ferguson said.
Now Ferguson is here, too — along with four of his former Crimson Tide teammates.
The quintet has brought an infusion of talent from Tuscaloosa to Tallahassee. All were blue-chip transfers in a portal class ranked fourth by 247Sports. Three were top-100 national recruits in high school: running back Roydell Williams, linebacker Shawn Murphy and Ferguson, an offensive lineman. A fourth (defensive back Earl Little Jr.) was 106th, and the fifth (receiver Malik Benson) was the nation’s top junior college prospect.
The group isn’t as top-heavy as the Alabama expats at Ohio State (second-team All-American Caleb Downs) or Texas (Iron Bowl hero Isaiah Bond and Lakewood High alumnus Amari Niblack), but no team has signed more players from the Tide’s diaspora than the Seminoles.
“I think honestly with all of us here, I feel like we can bring some of Alabama to Florida State and mix our cultures up,” Murphy said. “I think that would be great for all of us.”
Murphy is an outlier in the group; he’s the only one who entered the portal after Saban’s stunning retirement. Benson and Little were already committed to FSU by then. Ferguson chose the ‘Noles a day after Saban announced his retirement — and a day before Norvell announced he was staying at FSU.
The key figure in this migration, then, isn’t Saban. It’s Norvell.
He and his FSU staff offered all five players the first time. The ‘Noles were serious contenders for Ferguson, Little and Murphy in high school.
“I feel like it might not have…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fsu-football-transfer-portal-raid-100000368.html
Author : Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Publish date : 2024-02-26 10:00:00
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