Every time 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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THE SITUATION
Melvin Jordan committed to Florida State this past summer when Willie Taggart was still the coach and Raymond Woodie was an assistant coach on staff and his main recruiter.
The 2022 linebacker from Clearwater (Fla.) Calvary Christian stuck with the Seminoles through this ugly season, through the coaching change from Taggart to coach Mike Norvell and through a recent junior day.
But after considering all that’s going on in Tallahassee, and around the rest of the country since many top programs are recruiting him, Jordan decided in the last few days to back off his pledge and look at all teams as an uncommitted prospect.
Georgia and Miami could be two programs to watch but Jordan should be a national recruit by this time next season. Florida State will very much stay in the picture but Norvell did not need any decommitments this early in his tenure – and especially before he could even coach a game with the Seminoles.
As Jordan continues to build his relationship with Norvell and position coach Chris Marve, Florida State should remain a major player in his recruitment over the next couple years. But every other elite team is going to pounce as well since Jordan is such a talented 2022 prospect.
LOCAL REACTION
"The loss of Melvin Jordan does hurt because he grew up a fan and he's considered one of the best linebackers for the 2022 class. But at the same time he's like two years away from signing and in talking with Jordan he's still heavily considering FSU. So we have to wait and see how big of a sting this is. He plans to visit FSU again this spring or soon. This looks like a case where Melvin really wants to explore all the options and he likely didn’t feel he could do that being committed to FSU.
"He did mention some concern with how many linebackers FSU has landed recently. But we'll have to see what happens once he visits FSU and starts visiting other schools. There are a lot of teams involved. Penn State is one that could be a factor with his cousin Keyvone Lee already there from the 2020 class." - Michael Langston, Warchant.com
Sting factor: 5
NATIONAL REACTION
"This one isn’t great but there is plenty of time left for FSU to get back in the mix with Jordan. He’s a talented linebacker and would be a great addition to the class but this is not a surprise because he committed to the previous staff and committed so early. He’ll be tough to get back, so it stings a bit but not too bad." - Mike Farrell, National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 6
