TAMPA, Fla. - 4-Star wide receiver
Auden Tate ended his recruitment today when he announced his commitment to
Florida State at his school, in front of friends, family and school administrators.
Tate will cut down his list this summer. Will Wisconsin be among those left standing?
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound wideout actually committed to the staff last week when he and his family took an unofficial visit on Friday.
“He (
Jimbo Fisher) was excited when I told him. He took me in the meeting room and told all the coaches, so I got to meet all the coaches then,” Tate said.
Last Friday’s visit to Tallahassee was the second trip he’s taken to FSU this year. The first was back in March and Tate credits that visit for getting the ball rolling on his recruitment to FSU.
“When I first visited I kind of felt like that was the place I’d go. Maryland was real close too, I really did feel at home there.”
Sometimes being the first to offer gives a team a leg-up on the competition. In this case, FSU was actually one of the last teams to offer Tate.
“I knew FSU was a little suspect with me at first because they hadn’t really seen me play. They were at the spring game and I wasn’t surprised when they offered me after that game. I was talking to coach (Lawrence) Dawsey pretty frequently before the offer, so when the offer came it didn’t change much. (Dawsey) Was just waiting on Jimbo to offer.
“They wanted to see me use my body, they wanted to see me lineup at different positions and that’s what I did in the spring game. I lined up at slot, out wide, tight end, running back. Everywhere.”
Tate says a big reason he committed to FSU was
Lawrence Dawsey’s straight forward approach.
“Coach Dawsey didn’t promise me anything like most schools did. He just promised me that he’d give me the opportunity to come in work and earn a spot on the field.”
Over the past five years, most of the top players in Tampa play on the Team Tampa 7on7 team. Several big time prospects come from Team Tampa every year, but for some reason, FSU has not landed any. Tate is the first FSU commit from a team that has produced stars such as Vernon Hargreaves III, Nelson Agholor, Leon McQuay III, Matt Jones and Kent Taylor - just to name a few.
“I didn’t know I was the first from Team Tampa to go to FSU, but it’s always good to be the first,” Tate added. “Team Tampa helped me out a lot. It’s good to go against the best everyday in practice, it really prepared me mentally and physically.”
Now that his commitment is behind him, Tate says he’s looking forward to his senior season and getting better.
“I’m working on improving my lateral quickness. They (FSU strength & conditioning) will get me bigger when I get there and put the weight on right. For now I’m working on my building my quickness and my hands.”
Tate, who is the 20th best wide receiver in the country,
says he’s currently on pace to enroll early at FSU.
Damn you really hate South Carolina i'll give you the Ole Piss and Kentucky cosign but damn Carolina isn't that bad. I can see if this was still the Brad Scott era but Spurrier been doing work. I don't know if they will able to sustain it after SOS retires but Spurrier is a G he took what mushmouth Holtz started and turned Carolina into a legit program can't even knock it.
. Columbus is big, not like nyc big but its a nice size. Got to move around homey. Once school start he will see plenty of dimes
