Over the next week, Warchant.com will continue to unveil our list of the Five Greatest Recruiting Classes in Florida State football history.
* First installment: Discussing the grading criteria, which classes just missed the cut
* Second Installment: Class No. 5 -- 1989: T-Buck, Charlie & Company
* Today: Class No. 4 -- 2011
* Coming Wednesday: Class No. 3 -- ???
There are a lot of ways to measure the greatness of the 2011 Florida State recruiting class.
You could use number of starts, number of draft picks, number of career touchdowns or a variety of other criteria to make the case.
But maybe the best example of how significant this class was to the history of FSU Football was that unforgettable night in Pasadena, Calif., in early January 2014.
On the final drive that night -- you probably remember it -- eight different members of the 2011 class were on the field for the FSU offense at one point or another. One made arguably the most famous catch in Florida State history, while another drew the most important pass-interference penalty in program history (he also drew a non-called horse-collar, but no need to bring up old stuff).
No matter what our numbers said, the 2011 class was always going to be special for FSU fans. But after Warchant.com got done crunching the numbers, it comes in as the fourth-best in class school history with a total of 98 points.
A helpful reminder: We broke down each class by assigning point values to certain criteria. A player got two points for being a starter or major contributor, three points for being an NFL draft pick, four points for being on a reputable All-America team, five points for being an NFL first-round draft pick, six points for being a consensus or unanimous All-American, seven points for winning a national award, eight points for winning the Heisman Trophy and 10 points for having his jersey retired.
When you look at the players in this class -- Kelvin Benjamin, Rashad Greene, Nick O'Leary, Devonta Freeman, Timmy Jernigan and many, many others -- you can see why it was ranked as the No. 1 class in the country at the time. You also can see why Florida State was ranked No. 1 in the country when 2013 ended.
What made this class special wasn't just the star power, however, it was the overall quantity of starters and/or contributors that Jimbo Fisher and his staff signed in February of 2011. All told, 19 different players made a significant contribution during their time in Tallahassee. And 10 ended up playing in the NFL.
Nick O'Leary wound up being the biggest point-scorer out of this class. The tight end, whose grandfather has a bunch of trophies in some other sport, won the Mackey Award and was a consensus All-American in 2014. He was also a three-year starter who finished his Florida State career with 114 catches for 1,591 yards and 17 touchdowns.
He was a fan favorite from the moment he arrived on campus and will always, always, always be remembered for this play.
