Forrest Gump’s mama always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes. On signing day, it was clear where five-star defensive tackle Marvin Wilson was going when he unveiled his sneakers to an ESPN2 audience. In his commitment to Florida State, Wilson pulled from a bag custom Jordans branded with “FSU” in garnet and gold.
Often, where a Houston recruit goes is to a nearby school. Wilson, No. 4 in the ESPN 300 and 2017’s best defensive tackle, is from Texas, a state at the heart of a Big 12 vs. SEC (and vs. Ohio State) power struggle. The roads from Houston to the Forty Acres, Aggieland and Death Valley are well known.
At the beginning of the recruiting process, most out-of-state recruits probably couldn’t identify where Florida State in Tallahassee is on a map. Not quite situated along the white sand beaches of the panhandle and far from the peninsula’s expanding metropolises, Florida State is nestled under the canopy trees in the middle.
Wilson found it, and it will be his home for at least the next few years. The same goes for Cam Akers and Joshua Kaindoh. Under coach Jimbo Fisher, Tallahassee is now a confluence of five-star streams from vastly different points all over the country. On Wednesday, Florida State signed three five-star recruits, and all came from outside its own state. Since ESPN implemented star rankings in 2010, only Alabama has been able to make that claim (2014, 2017).
Joining Wilson is No. 1 running back Cam Akers out of Clinton, Mississippi, and top-ranked defensive end Joshua Kaindoh, a Maryland native who transferred to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, as a junior.
“When you get great players out of state, man, you’re at the mercy of everything around, because you’re the foreigner. You’re the stepchild coming into that scenario,” Fisher said. “You don’t have the background. You don’t have the lay of the land. You don’t have all the things that go with it.”
After placing a 300-pound bow on the Seminoles’ fourth-ranked class, Wilson said it “took a lot” to convince his family a destination 10 hours away fit him best. His mother wanted him near, and his brother liked LSU. Yet Wilson was a Florida State lean since back in the summer.
Akers, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards as a senior quarterback, not long ago was thought to be headed for Ole Miss, however. The NCAA cloud and mass coaching departures provided an opening for Florida State, which was already a contender. Since Hugh Freeze’s first class in 2012 through 2016, Ole Miss signed four of five No. 1 Magnolia State recruits; Mississippi State signed the other. Before Akers, the top-ranked player in Mississippi had not left the state since 2011.
Freeze said this recruiting class felt like an NCAA penalty. The biggest forfeiture is Akers, No. 9 in the ESPN 300.
“I love the state of Mississippi,” Seminoles assistant coach Tim Brewster said, “and I love getting their players even better.”
Like Akers, Kaindoh enrolled at Florida State in January. Kaindoh’s former high school coach, Daryl Jackson, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Maryland, said the Seminoles were the first to offer a scholarship to Kaindoh, and before his junior season, Kaindoh transferred to Florida’s IMG Academy. But in April, he committed to return home to play at Maryland.
When the No. 13 recruit decommitted in November, it looked as if it would be for Penn State, which recruits Maryland hard annually and just hosted him on an official visit days earlier. Two days before Christmas, however, Kaindoh committed to Florida State.
“I know it was a tough decision, because he didn’t want to be far from his mom again,” Jackson said.
Three five-star recruits and three who all didn’t start with Florida State at the top end up signing with the Seminoles. Wilson said LSU was a dream school and told The Advocate he is still an “LSU fan at heart.” Akers broke a trend covering a half-decade. Twice, the comforts of home weren’t enough to sway Kaindoh.
From 2010-14, the Seminoles signed two out-of-state five-star recruits. In the last three classes, they have signed five.
“National brand name, consistency of program, success rate, graduation rates, personalities of your team — all those things carry those factors,” Fisher said. “We’re very fortunate to have our staff … and those guys did a great job as a staff recruiting the heck out of them.”
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