Seminoles just lost an elite recruit to a blue-blood school, but they’ll have the perfect opportunity to show him what he’s missing out on
The Florida State Seminoles haven’t had quite the recruiting cycle fans have hoped for.
The Florida State Seminoles are slowly putting themselves in a worse position. Their recruiting classes have dropped massively in rankings. FSU had the 14th-best class in the 2026 cycle, and now has the 34th-best class in the 2027 cycle. Not to mention, they recently lost out on an elite recruit.
It’s no secret the program isn’t in a great place. The Seminoles are in a tough position with their head coach, and they don’t have much money to spare to fire him. But every year, Mike Norvell has still recruited well, all things considered. That’s starting to fall off a bit.
This week, they lost out on 2027 running back Tai Phillips, who chose Alabama over FSU. But, as we all know, the Seminoles play Bama in 2026, so they do have the opportunity to show Phillips, two years in a row, that he made the wrong decision. Will FSU do that? Probably not. This team doesn’t seem likely to be very good. Then again, they weren’t good last season, but beat Alabama in Alabama.
Phillips is a three-star RB from Irmo High School in South Carolina. He’s the No. 46 running back in the country, and the No. 14 player in the state. And based on some of the work BamaOnLine did over at On3, Phillips is a guy the Seminoles will desperately miss.
2027 RB Tai Phillips is explosive
“Man, the first word I’d use is explosive,” Demyond Wright, one of the coaches on staff at Irmo High School in Columbia, S.C, told BOL. “He’s explosive, really fast, dynamic kid. A very humble, quiet kid. He’s one of the kids that you may walk by and miss him in the room, but when you look at the running back position he is built for the part. He’s everything you want in a 5-11, 6-foot guy. Maybe about 200 pounds. He does the things when we’re in the weight room that you don’t think a high school kid can do. 315-pound power clean, that’s unheard of for a high school running back. 700-pound deadlift.
“He’s one of those guys that came in and was just stacking days, stacking days. What we do with him, you would see a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of training. He just came in and fit right in. You look at him and see him with the ball in his hands and see that he’s a home run hitter.”
The Seminoles have four-star running back Jayden Miles committed, so they didn’t need another RB that baldy. However, that kind of explosiveness is something they need. FSU is still in contention to land three-star RB Arwin Jackson, too.