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Sting Factor: Branden Jennings parts ways with Florida State

Branden Jennings
Branden Jennings (Rivals.com)

When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.

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CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State

CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State

COVERAGE: Rivals Transfer Tracker | Rivals Camp Series

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THE SITUATION

Branden Jennings was committed to Florida State for a little more than eight months, a major pledge for the Seminoles because first-year coach Mike Norvell and his staff have not infiltrated the in-state market yet.

Landing Jennings, a four-star linebacker from Jacksonville (Fla.) Sandalwood, was an important in-state recruiting victory. But on Monday, he announced that he would be reopening his recruitment.

Florida State will still be considered but every other top program is back in the mix as well for Jennings and sometimes getting prospects to re-commit can be twice as difficult.

Jennings is a legacy prospect for Florida State since his father, Bradley, won a national title with the Seminoles. His brother, Bradley, had been committed to Florida State before flipping to Miami so that could be something to watch, and something that could hurt the Seminoles even more. It’s clear right now that the Hurricanes are trending up while FSU is still struggling to gain traction.

Miami, Georgia Tech and many others are after Jennings, who said he will still seriously consider the Seminoles along with everyone else now that he’s open again.

LOCAL REACTION

“I was close to giving it a full 10 but Jennings is a big fan of FSU and he's still expected to highly consider the Seminoles. With that said, this is a tremendous loss in the 2021 class for FSU because it needs help at linebacker and Jennings was expected to come right in and be an immediate guy for a defense that has struggled mightily the last three years.

“Certainly one of the worst decommits FSU could have wanted to see and certainly it’s key for FSU to find a way to get him back on board, so improvement on the field in some degree is probably needed to pull that off.” - Michael Langston, Warchant.com

Sting factor: 9

NATIONAL REACTION

“This one really hurts as Jennings is the best player in this FSU class and, as an in-state four-star, he would help with future efforts in the Sunshine State. This is something FSU can’t afford."

Sting factor: 9

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