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Published Jan 4, 2025
Memphis LB transfer Elijah Herring recaps official visit to Florida State
Nick Carlisle  •  TheOsceola
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One of the most productive linebackers still available in the portal, Memphis transfer Elijah Herring is once again a highly coveted target as the portal window begins to wind down. With a little over a week to go, Herring is taking a final handful of visits before making a decision on where to play for his final year of eligibility.

The junior transferred to Memphis after spending his first two years at Tennessee. And with his final year of college football due up, his search for a home has taken him to Tallahassee for a one-day visit on Saturday.

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"It was a great visit. Meeting everybody and seeing the new facilities that they had been building. Everything was beautiful," Herring said on the visit.

With one year left to play (with the possibility of a redshirt), Herring is looking for a home in his final stop. The transfer was extremely productive at Memphis this past season, totaling 60 tackles, 3.5 sacks, two interceptions and two forced fumbles.

Herring would find himself playing in a similar scheme if he were to come play at Florida State. Linebackers coach John Papuchis and defensive coordinator Tony White spent the day bonding with Herring and explaining how he could help ease the transition to the new scheme.

"We talked some ball, talked about life — just seeing how everything would fit for me," Herring said of his time with Papuchis and White. "It's really similar (the scheme) from what I'm coming from so everything was clicking and everything looked similar."

Herring had similar talks with head coach Mike Norvell.

"We just talked about life, how he sees me fitting into this program, how he sees me fitting on the field and working with the Tallahassee community and bringing it back up," he said.

Herring was not alone during his visit on Saturday, as former Tennessee teammates Squirrel White and Jayson Jenkins were also on campus. While White was finishing up his multi-day visit, Herring and Jenkins arrived at similar times.

"It was great. It brought back freshman memories. (I have) A lot of great memories with those guys so it was a great time getting to talk with them again. Hopefully we can do something together," Herring said.

While Florida State would love to land all three of the former teammates, Herring still has some more deciding to do (as do they all). Following the end of his visit, Herring's current plan is to fly out to visit Cal on Sunday. There are tentative plans in place for Herring to then travel back across the country to visit Syracuse on Jan. 7, although those plans seemed less concrete.

With the end of the transfer portal window coming in around a week's time, Herring intends to make a final decision sometime next week.

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