11/7/2023 football Edit

Embracing a family legacy: How 2024 commit Camdon Frier came to choose FSU

The Friers (from left): Matt, Camdon, Kerri and Cade. (Frier family)

Nick Carlisle • TheOsceola

Writer

In the summer of 2021, Camdon Frier attended a Seminole Showcase camp held by the coaching staff of Florida State. Frier performed well during the camp and Florida State coach Mike Norvell took Camdon with his family up to his office in Doak Campbell Stadium.

The four-star wide receiver had multiple Division I scholarship offers in both baseball and football at the time and didn't have the slightest clue of where his future would lead. One thing he thought he knew, however, was that he didn't want to go to Florida State.

At the end of the meeting, the normally energetic Norvell pushed back from his desk and stood up. The next words that came out of Norvell's mouth, drastically changed everything that Camdon thought he knew.

If the last name Frier rings a bell to you, that's because it should. Matt Frier, Camdon's father, was a wide receiver on Florida State's first national championship team in 1993. He met his wife, Kerri, while she was playing softball at Tallahassee Community College just down the road. Camdon's uncle, Todd Frier, was a member of the 1999 championship team. His other uncle, Jason Floyd, was also a member of that 1999 championship team and an aunt, Carmen, was a cheerleader. The Frier family is about as intertwined with the legacy of Florida State as one could possibly be. Yet early on in the recruiting process, Camdon insisted upon doing his own thing and making a name for himself away from the family legacy at Florida State.

Camdon was not the first Frier to think this way. His older brother Cole, said the exact same thing to his father a few years prior when he was being recruiting to play baseball at Florida State by then baseball coach Mike Martin Jr.

"We probably pushed Cole too hard," Matt Frier said. "We were just excited and Cole was very fast and athletic. He quit playing football in eighth grade and said, 'I don't love football.' So we backed off of that, as his passion was in baseball. Then he said he didn't want to play college baseball either — and colleges wanted him — so we learned that it's not about us and it was a great learning experience."

Matt expected that learning experience to translate over to handling Camdon but it turned out to be a horse of a different color with this particular Frier.

Camdon was getting far more attention than Cole had gotten. When he was 12, he traveled to that year's Cooperstown Baseball Camp and recorded the fastest time out of 1,200 kids. When he was 13 he ran a 3.79 30-yard dash at the Perfect Game Camp, which again, was the fastest time recorded and happened to be the fastest time ever recorded by a 13-year-old. Camdon became an Adidas All-American as a freshman and began to earn multiple Division I offers in both football and baseball.

When Florida State wide receivers coach Ron Dugans (who was teammates with Todd Frier on the 1999 championship team) heard that Todd had a nephew who played high school football and was the son of another Florida State national champion, he was immediately interested. He came to a game at Live Oak High School to watch Camdon play. If he played anything like Todd used to when they were teammates and had the same work ethic, Dugans wanted him as a Seminole. Florida State became Camdon's first football offer — and the first school to offer him in both sports.

Despite the newfound attention and the connection with Dugans, Camdon was still dismissive of Florida State and was firm on the idea of making his own way.

"When I was in eighth grade and ninth grade, I truly didn't think I wanted to," Camdon said. "There was probably a time or two where I did say that I don't want to."

"Camdon came to me and said, 'Dad I love you but I think I don't really want to go to Florida State ... I want to find my own way,' " Matt added. "So I backed off again. I told him, "Buddy, that's exactly what you need to do.' "

As Norvell stood behind his desk during the meeting with the Friers, he proceeded to look at Camdon directly in the eyes and then pointed at his dad.

"My whole family was in the room with me," Camdon explained. "Norvell looked at me and said, 'I respect your dad, he helped build this place, but I really don't care about him. I care about you. I want kids like you to build this program that we are building here."

It was as if Norvell saw straight through Camdon and understood the indecision that came with having a family legacy tied to Florida State — a legacy that has been a part of the university's finest moments on a football field.

"He knew the type of people that he wanted," Camdon said. "I'm blessed that he thinks of me as one of those people. He doesn't care about what my dad did or who he was. He focused on me and that really meant a lot to me ... When I met them, things changed dramatically."

Florida State started off the following season 0-4, with a historic low for the program coming in a 20-17 loss to FCS Jacksonville State. Yet, Norvell's words resonated with Camdon throughout his sophomore year of high school. Camdon committed to Florida State — a team that finished with a 5-7 record — on January 29th, 2022. It was a decision that two years later makes sense given the turnaround of the program but at the time it was something that many didn't understand.

"I kinda got criticized by my high school teammates when I first committed," Camdon said. "They just didn't understand the way the coaching staff made me feel. They didn't understand how much like home it felt like."

Camdon became the second commitment of the now top-5 recruiting class. The only other player committed at the time was four-star RB Kameron Davis, who had been committed for nearly a year. Two months later, Mike Norvell and his staff earned the commitment of another key piece of the 2024 class: an unknown quarterback named Luke Kromenhoek.

From there, the trio of Davis, Frier and Kromehoek set out as the foundation of the 2024 class. Despite the performance of the team on the field, all three prospects saw what wasn't immediately visible — a huge culture change happening at Florida State.

"Those three kids saw the culture change," Matt Frier said. "They believed in Mike Norvell and the coaching staff. They believed that by the time they got there, they were going to win a national championship. I remember Camdon telling me that, I remember hearing him tell both Luke and Kam about it, too."

However, it was still early and there were some questions left to be answered in the next two years. Kromenhoek didn't have a single high school start under his belt. Major Power 5 programs such as Alabama and Texas A&M were attempting to make a run at flipping Kameron Davis after a tumultuous 5-7 season for the Seminoles. Camdon had his own challenges coming.

"Mike (Norvell) really wanted Camdon," Matt recalled. "He said that everybody is going to want Camdon in a year or two from now. There was no way that he was going to let Camdon go."

Sure enough, in August 2022, Camdon got a call from Alabama Coach Nick Saban. Saban personally invited Camdon to fly out to Tuscaloosa, visit the University of Alabama, and work out in person for Saban and the Alabama coaching staff.

Camdon was terribly conflicted. It was a huge opportunity for him and one that he wanted to pursue. Yet the love and respect he had for Norvell made it a nerve-wracking decision. He was worried about how Norvell would react given how much time and trust was invested into growing their relationship.

So, Matt Frier made the call to Norvell.

"I didn't want 16-year-old Camdon to have to have that pressure," Matt said. "He didn't want to do the wrong thing but he wanted to go. So I made the call and told Norvell that I didn't think anything would come of it, we were still 100% committed but that Camdon wanted to go."

Norvell not only understood the predicament, he also encouraged and wanted Camdon to go. He even went as far as to offer advice to the family.

"He said prepare your answers," Matt said. "Because they are going to ask you questions that you're gonna need answers for. Like, when we were there someone asked us if we were still committed to Florida State and we said yes. We just couldn't turn down Coach Saban and wanted to visit with him."

Camdon returned from his visit with an offer from Alabama. But in doing so, he also returned with something even more important: clarity. Because he had committed so early, he restricted a lot of his recruiting process and had not experienced the carousel of competing programs that many other recruits were experiencing. Was he missing out? What other opportunities were out there?

Luckily for Camdon, having two family members that went through similar experiences in the recruiting process kept him grounded.

"My dad had more national attention than I did in high school," Camdon said. "He really prepared me for things along the way. I'm blessed to have that type of guidance. Things like, 'You need to be smart, there is always somebody watching, you need to be careful with social media.' But they also didn't want me to forget to have fun and enjoy my high school career. My uncle Todd helped me a lot with how early Coach (Ron) Dugans got hold of me."

Camdon Frier committed in Jan. 2022, back when FSU was coming off a 5-7 season. (Bob Ferrante)

Camdon held true to his commitment to Norvell — as did Kameron Davis and Kromenhoek. Davis dismissed any serious attempts to sway his commitment and Kromehoek turned into quite the prospect. From there, the three became close.

"Very close for being a few hours apart, I'd say," Camdon joked.

By then, more had joined the fray. Woodward Academy (Ga.) safety CJ Heard Jr., Booker T. (Fla.) defensive tackle Jamorie Flagg and American Heritage (Fla.) Kicker Jake Weinberg verbally committed and from there the class blossomed.

The following season, Florida State turned in its first 10-win season since 2016. The word of the culture change and improvement of the program reverberated through every vein of the recruiting world. Players were starting to talk about Florida State again. The class grew in size and prowess every few months as blue-chip recruits such as Charles Lester and KJ Bolden were coming to find what Camdon, Luke and Kameron saw early on.

"Watching it grow and meeting these new guys every couple of months... I would show up back here and there was another new commit or two that I would get to meet," Camdon said. "Coach Norvell is getting like-minded people and that's what I'm so excited about with this recruiting class. It's been a blessing watching this class getting bigger and bigger."

While Norvell has openly sought out a particular type of player to build the program, the players have taken it upon themselves to take an extra step in recruiting other prospects to Florida State so that they too can be a part of the change that is so readily believed in. It's not atypical for commits to try and coerce uncommitted prospects but this year's class has a persistence to them — an attitude that all stems from the first three recruits.

Camdon recalled an experience he had with four-star TE commit Landen Thomas.

"The week before Landen committed — me, him and Luke took pictures together and he was still committed to Georgia at the time," Camdon explained. "Gosh... me and Luke were just sitting there bugging him. I'm sure we annoyed him but I guess it worked. A couple of hours later I get a text from Derrick (Yray, FSU General Manager) saying that we got him."

Kromenhoek drove to Sarasota to be there in person for four-star DB Charles Lester's commitment ceremony. Davis drove to Buford to watch KJ Bolden commit. Camdon was there when B.J Gibson committed, as the two were on the same 15 and under travel baseball team. In a day in which so much is done over social media, the connections these recruits are making in person has done wonders towards securing this strong class.

"We had three or four guys commit on the weekend of Luke and I's official visit," Camdon said. "Kam Davis did not even have his official visit for that weekend and he still came to try and recruit guys. That just shows how special this class is. I feel like as high school kids, and Luke and Kam do a better job than I do, but as high school kids I think we've done really well."

They have done well. Since he was hired as Florida State's coach in 2019, Mike Norvell has preached about finding the right athletes for Florida State. The expectation of what he meant was finding a fit on the field, both schematically and physically. But it's also about finding players who would not only buy into the culture change but exemplify the culture change with their actions. To embrace what it means to be a Seminole, just as Camdon embraced it.

In his senior season, Camdon led his high school team in receptions (33), receiving yards (456), and receiving touchdowns (5). He helped lead his team to a district title. In December, Camdon will sign his letter of intent to attend Florida State University and begin his journey to compete for a national title like his family did 30 years ago.