Recruiting Retrospective: Florida State's Football Signing Class of 2004
For the next several weeks, we will take a look back at the Seminoles' past recruiting classes, explore which ones exceeded expectations or fell short, and dig deep into how these signees' careers played out both at Florida State and into the pros.
After a surprisingly disappointing recruiting class the prior year, the Seminoles bounced back in a big way in 2004 -- at least from a ratings perspective. The consensus top-five class included players like Lawrence Timmons, Xavier Lee, Tony Carter and Drew Weatherford. While there was plenty of star-power in this group, there also were an inordinate number of signees who fell short of expectations.
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Florida State's 2004 Football Recruiting Class
Class Ranking: No. 2 (Rivals) / Number of signees: 26
Four-year win-loss record: 31-20 / ACC Championships: 1 (2005)
First-Team All-Americans*: 0
* Includes first-team All-Americans listed by major outlets (ESPN, AP, Camp, FWAA, AFCA)
The Florida State coaching staff did a bang-up job of rebounding from the disappointing 2003 class by winning more battles on the recruiting trail. When the dust settled, FSU brought in a top-three class that included nine Rivals100 members. However, as it turns out, the victory was only on paper.
While the 2003 class was short both on star power and numbers (18 signees with only 14 qualifying), the 2004 group might have had the highest bust ratio of any class in program history. Only a handful of players from the group lived up to expectations, and a case could be made that up to 20 provided little contribution.
Only nine of the 26 signees started eight or more games during their FSU careers.
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