Four-star defensive back prospect Gregory 'Zae' Thomas has been a frequent visitor to Florida State's campus in recent months and during his attendance of the Legacy Weekend on Saturday, he got to experience something new with FSU.

"It was a great visit. I got to see stuff a little bit different than what I've usually seen," Thomas said. "I haven't been here for a practice before, just games and stuff so it was good to see the practice environment, see how the coaches are, just how the practice was ran. It was good. I liked what I saw from the practice. Just seeing the former players, hearing them talk and asking them specific questions that I wanted to know. It was good."

Thomas sat with former Florida State safety Akeem Dent during the luncheon and he got to ask Dent several questions about his varied experience at Florida State.

"He was just telling me how he got into the rotation, the way he went through the tough times here and how it made him better as a person. He told me that if you want to have fun you can have fun but you've got to lock in. It was a good conversation — we talked about a lot," Thomas said.

Florida State was one of the first programs to offer Thomas and that has stuck with the Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage prospect as he enters an important time in his recruitment.

"Since that day last year, they have been hard on me," Thomas said. "Just letting me know how much they want me every time I come up here. They just make it feel like home."

With so many visits to Florida State, Thomas and the FSU coaching staff tend to focus less on the football side of things and more on real life when he visits.

"It's important, just in general," Thomas said. "I'm coming here to play football but I'm going to be living here — or wherever I go. Whatever coach I feel the most comfortable with off the field, that's one of the most important things to me."

The connection between Thomas and defensive backs coach Patrick Surtain continues to be a theme in Thomas' recruitment given that Surtain was his head coach before taking the Florida State job. Being able to see Surtain coach again in person was a bit of a throwback for Thomas.

"It was a little throwback. I haven't seen that in a while," Thomas said. "It was good to see. (It was the same) pretty much, yeah."

Thomas has an official visit set with Florida State for the final weekend of the summer window, June 21. Penn State is another school that could get an official visit from Thomas at this time but that may be decided after he visits Happy Valley in May. He also wants to visit Tennessee and Colorado before spring is over.

One thing is for certain, it may be hard to shake that family feel at Florida State.

"I always say they treat me like family but he (Norvell) says that we feel like family to him. So that's a good thing to hear from Coach Norvell," Thomas said.

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