Takeaways from Florida State's prospect camp

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Quarterbacks headlined the first two days of Florida State’s prospect camp. The marquee attraction was five-star Justin Fields, who threw while head coach Jimbo Fisher looked on from a golf cart. Fields, a former Penn State commit, is considering FSU, among others.

Three-star Jace Ruder, who made the trip to Tallahassee from Norton, Kan., was a pleasant surprise and looked impressive during his workout. Fisher and company could certainly do worse than him should it miss on Fields and other targets. Ruder already holds an FSU offer, but it’s possible that the Seminoles staff is waiting to see how things shake out with other targets -- namely Fields -- before pressing hard for a commitment. Ruder is expected to announce his decision before the start of the season.

Class of 2020 prospect Max Johnson, son of former FSU great Brad Johnson, worked out at the camp. Aaron McLaughlin, who has already collected multiple offers and made a name for himself as a can’t-miss prospect despite being a member of the class of 2020, also threw for the FSU staff.

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Isaiah Bolden refuses to be boring. And, you know, he deserves respect for that.

The four-star defensive back flipped his commitment from Florida State to Oregon in late April, but looked mighty comfortable on FSU’s campus, where he spent two full days talking to coaches and Seminole commit Amari Gainer. Bolden, who intends to utilize December’s early Signing Day, says he remains open to Florida State, as his parents would prefer him choose the in-state program over the Ducks.

“My Signing Day might be crazy,” Bolden said on Wednesday.

But if there’s a second change of heart in store, he would be well served by making it quick. FSU could fill up at his position well before December.

Last month, LSU commit Nadab Joseph arrived at his school’s spring game sporting an FSU sweatshirt. He followed that up on Thursday by showing up on Florida State’s campus in a Florida State hat to go along with a matching FSU shirt.

There are tense moments ahead for LSU when it comes to retaining Joseph. That much is undeniable at this point. Alabama, Georgia and Florida State are all in play, but Joseph’s wardrobe and travel patterns seem to suggest FSU is real threat. Joseph didn’t work out because of a minor hip injury. Instead, he looked on from the sidelines and interacted with Seminole coaches.

I set up shop on the patio of famed Tallahassee eatery Bird’s Aphrodisiac Oyster Shake at roughly 7:15 Wednesday night, and the shellfish I ordered came with a show. My seat provided an up-close view of a man crashing his BMW into both a poll and a van, fleeing the scene on foot and throwing a sack containing a white powdery substance before being arrested on the roof of an adjacent building.

Florida’s version of dinner theater, like most things in the state, comes with a hint of danger. The whole ordeal was very on the nose.

Oh, and there’s video of the aftermath on my Twitter, linked above. The scene is every bit as insane as it sounds.

Regardless of how you feel about the new NCAA rule prohibiting colleges from employing people “close to recruits,” there’s no denying that it’s hurting on-campus prospect camps.

College staff are no long able to pay high school coaches to “work” their camp, thus removing any incentive for them to drive their top players to the event. The toll the rule is taking is obvious. This year’s June event at FSU, a camp notorious for attracting talent from all over, was noticeably light on top-flight players. The correlation is not a coincidence and people working the camp, including FSU’s own coaches, said as much.

There were headliners, including a pair of five-stars, kicking around the three-day camp. A program like Florida State will always attract star power. The lack of depth, however, was new.

Florida State freshman running back Cam Akers assisted in drills and coached campers. There’s nothing really newsworthy to discuss here. I just wanted to use this as a vehicle to point out, one final time, that he should have been the No. 1 player in America last cycle and would have been if it were up to me. I just want that on the record one final time.