Florida State was able to land a commitment from four-star athlete Za'Kari Johnson back in July. His recruitment didn't slow down after that. In fact, multiple schools have upped their efforts to try and take him from the Seminoles.
Their arch-rivals, the Miami Hurricanes, are a school that Johnson recently visited for their win over FAMU, and he stated that he'd love to be a member of their program with the resurgence they've had lately. He also took a visit to see the Texas A&M Aggies for their season opener, and he mentioned that they were currently leading after his trip.
It's clear that FSU is going to have to work extremely hard to keep Johnson. According to the 6-foot-1, 196-pounder, despite all the noise being created by other schools,
he's still strong on his pledge to Florida State, but wins need to happen as well.
“It stands good right now. I need them to win though,” Johnson told Warchant. “I need them to ball, every game.”
A huge factor for Johnson when it came to committing to the Seminoles was his relationship with head coach Mike Norvell, and he spoke about wanting him to remain with the program even with the chatter about his demise in Tallahassee as of late. However, safeties coach Evan Cooper is an even bigger reason why Johnson pledged to FSU.
“Coach Coop [is] the reason I committed there for real,” Johnson said.
Florida State will hit the road to play the Alabama Crimson Tide this coming Saturday, which puts them in serious danger of falling to 1-2 on the season. They have to string together some wins to keep Johnson and others in their 2027 class, and beating Alabama would be huge.
Regardless of what happens, FSU is in a situation where they don't have a lot of room for error if they want any chance of keeping their recruiting class in place. Johnson is saying things are good now, but they can change in a hurry.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: Key commit says he's still strong to FSU despite taking other visits
