Posted by Lauren

Wednesday was my first National Signing Day as a fan who had intimately followed recruiting. Months of hype all came down to one signature, on one piece of paper, done by one seventeen year old guy, that thousands of people were watching. Non-sports people must think we’re nuts.

My NSD ritual started Tuesday night around 10pm PST. I sat down to my computer and began watching highlight film of our prospects. Not that I hadn’t already seen the film many times before, but I wanted to have that fresh image and impression of the guy’s talents in my mind once he signed (or didn’t sign) with FSU. Watching film and studying a host of commentary from people who know across the internet took me well into the night.

Being an FSU fan on the west coast has its drawbacks. NSD was one of them. Signings started around 5am my time, so needless to say, I pulled my first all-nighter since flying all night to the NC State game in Tally this fall. But come 5am, I was pumped and ready to go. The War Chant was streaming through my headphones, websites following recruiting were open on my laptop, and I was typing away on Twitter.

Then NSD proved to me why only the strong survive. Mack Brown chose Florida. Not a big deal since I doubted he’d sign with us. Then rumors start circling that Corey Lemonier (DE) was leaning toward Auburn. My excitement level was dropping. Then reports that Calvin Smith was going to sign with New Mexico were put out. (NEW MEXICO?!) Excitement level dropped another notch. And to top it all off, Telvin Smith hopped on a Valdosta, GA, radio station and said he was leaning toward signing with the Bulldogs after committing to FSU a few days earlier. What was going on? NSD 2010 was supposed to be bigger and better than Christmas for us Nole fans.

Around 5am PST, the LOIs (Letter of Intent) started rolling in for FSU—Chad Abrams and Jarred Haggins were first. While they were guys we had committed for a while, it was still good to see some action out of FSU. About 20 minutes later, Lamarcus Joyner signed his LOI. Yes, a big fish was in the pond.

At 5:39am PST FSU got its first reason to really celebrate—Dan Foose, the FSU-targeted yet Illinois-committed OL, signed with FSU. Foose was a big grab that went unnoticed by a lot of Noles since 2010’s class was a defense-heavy class. Make no mistake, we’re very excited to have Foose on board.

Over the next few hours, Seminole fans hit highs and lows. Highs as LOIs came in from good guys (Bjoern Werner) and lows as top prospects went elsewhere (Demar Dorsey). But in the end, Florida State pulled in the #6 recruiting class (per ESPN). Quite a feat considering FSU is coming off a 7–6 season, a complete coaching overhaul, and an offseason with as few as 2-3 coaches recruiting at certain times.

Overall I took away a few thoughts about this year’s class:

1. Jimbo Fisher likes to finish fast. The last few months have been a whirlwind of recruiting trips and commitments. Part of that is attributed to his recent ascension to the top of the program; part of it is attributed to his assistant James Coley.

2. Coach Coley is not human. At least, the James Coley that flies through area codes, snags commitments from top guys, and downs more Cuban Coffee than Fidel Castro. (NoleCC has a great theory about Coach Coley’s superhuman-ness.)

3. Our defense is on the path to recovery. Notice I didn’t state that our defense was fixed yet. Just as healing a broken bone takes time, healing a broken team will take time. Many Seminole fans don’t realize how bad our defense really was. This was more than a one-year issue. It’s a problem that has been getting worse year after year.

4. That being said, we did very well at the LB position on NSD. Grabbing Luc, Jones, Terrell, TSmith, and Onwukaife was key. Our LB squad has been very thin lately and we needed to add some top guys to the spots, which we did. I expect a lot of hard hits in 2010 from our LBs. Get the highlight reels ready.

5. One piece of our defensive rebuild that still needs help is our defensive line. We did pick up 5 DL guys (who will definitely help) but missed out on some top defensive ends whom we had wanted. Overall, the improvement of the DL is going to come down to coaches Eliot and Haggins. Spring game will give us a taste of how well they are doing at rebuilding our DL.

NSD had its ups and downs, but overall FSU came out looking good. We’ve got some good guys in the system; now let’s see how our new coaches build the team.