90 players in 2024. 45 on offense, 42 on defense, 3 on special teams.
F$U will be younger. And less talented.
-Lost 8 of 12 WRs (4 seniors), added 5 WRs
-Lost 4 of 5 TEs (1 senior), added 4 TEs
-Lost 1 of 7 RBs (1 senior), added 1 RB
-Lost 8 of 17 OLs (5 seniors), added 10 OLs
-Lost 3 of 4 QBs (1 senior), added 3 QBs
-Lost 3 of 7 DTs (0 seniors), added 4 DTs
-Lost 7 of 9 DEs (1 senior), added 6 DEs
-Lost 5 of 9 LBs (2 seniors), added 4 LBs
-Lost 2 of 6 Ss (1 senior), added 2 Ss
-Lost 3 of 11 CBs (2 seniors), added 3 CBs
So what does that mean? 18 of the 44 guys that left were leaving anyhow. And they were guys who were from the "good" Undefeated 13-1 team of 2023. Meaning that 26 guys left for other reasons besides "no more eligibility". And they brought in 41 guys, of which 22 are transfers and 19 of which are true freshmen.
What F$U would have you believe is that the loss of 26 guys who were not "big contributors" to their 2023 Undefeated 13-1 team, and their replacement by 22 transfers, will be the key to FSU going from 2-10 to (some will claim) 10-2.
Pass-catching - 3 of the 5 new WRs are true FR. 2 of the 4 new TEs are true FR. Is that enough of an improvement, 2 transfer WRs and 2 transfer TEs? F$U was NOT GOOD in the passing game last year.
Running - the sole new addition is a true FR. Mid before, still mid.
OL - Lost a lot of seniors (remember the pre-season hype?) and 5 of the 10 new guys are true FR. Not sure the OL will be any better than 2024.
QB - we all know the story here, they think Scrappy Castellanos is going to be everything that looks-like-Tarzan DJU was not. If Tiny Castellanos gets hurt, F$U is cooked.
DL - arguably, this is the biggest area of upgrade. They pushed out 9 underclassmen and only 5 of the 10 replacements are true FR. Could be an improved unit.
LB - they would LIKE to make the same argument here, but the best new LB is a true FR, and the three transfers are 3 of their 4 least talented LBs.
DB - only pushed out 2 underclassmen, and 3 of the 5 new guys are true FR. Might be good eventually, but not a good upgrade for 2025.
Everything turns on the QB and the DL. And the blind hope that changing all 4 tires on the OL will work out somehow. Otherwise, I don't see where F$U has either "added by subtraction" in getting rid of the players responsible for the 2024 debacle (but who were not the leaders of the 2023 Undefeated 13-1 team). or where F$U has added enough QUALITY from the Portal to yield immediate improvement, outside of praying for Castellanos's body to cover the checks that his ego is writing.
I know that hope springs eternal in Talla-*******-hassee, but this is going to be another rough year for them.
