When Willie Taggart took over as Florida State's head football coach in December 2017 and hastily put together his first recruiting class, Taggart and his staff tapped into a slew of existing relationships across the country.
Through those ties, they were able to land a top-10 class featuring players from a variety of regions: They brought in defensive back Jaiden Woodbey, receiver Tre'Shaun Harrison and tight end Camm McDonald from the West Coast. They snared linebacker/defensive end Xavier Peters out of Ohio, and they grabbed cornerback A.J. Lytton from Maryland.
That left 16 of the Seminoles' 21 signees coming from the states of Florida and Georgia.
Since that time, however, FSU has put a much greater emphasis on its "home" turf of Florida and Georgia, with very few commitments or signees coming from beyond that territory. And Taggart says that is not an accident.
"One thing we want to do is take care of our home," Taggart told Warchant during a recent spring booster tour stop in Atlanta. "We want to take care of Florida, south Georgia, this Atlanta area. To us, that's our 'in-state.'"
The two most recent recruiting cycles bear that out.
In the Seminoles' 2019 class, only two of 22 prospects came from outside of Florida and Georgia -- junior college offensive lineman Jay Williams and St. Louis offensive lineman Ira Henry. Of the remaining 20, 14 hailed from the Sunshine State and six came from Georgia.
Judging by the early returns for the 2020 class, the Seminoles could be gearing up for an even higher ratio of players from those two states.
Following this past weekend's commitment from wide receiver Malachi Wideman, FSU now has 12 commitments in place. All 12 are from Florida or Georgia, with only defensive back Isaiah Dunson of Tucker, Ga., actually coming from the Peach State.
The other 11 are from Florida.
"We want to do a good job [at home]," Taggart said, "and then we'll go outside the state where we have relationships with folks to recruit players that can help, players that are gonna help change the culture. ... We're not just gonna go to any and every place just to do that."
After hitting Florida hard for the last couple of weeks, the Seminoles apparently are about to begin their push into Georgia. Tight ends coach Telly Lockette posted this on Twitter on Tuesday morning:
