Warchant TV: Transfer OL Emmanuel on recruitment to FSU, respect for Atkins
The 11th transfer of the 2022 recruiting cycle for FSU is a player who's already familiar with the program and its offense.
D'Mitri Emmanuel, who spent the past five seasons at Charlotte, including starting 12 games during the 2019 season when current Florida State offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins held the same role, enrolled at FSU earlier this week.
The 6-foot-2, 300-pound senior played in 24 straight games for Charlotte during his career and will have one last season of college football remaining.
"I was just looking to be challenged and come to a program that has a lot of tradition. Especially being my last year, I felt like it was the right decision to come here and be with a coach I have played with before," Emmaunel said Friday during his first interview with the local media. "I'm here to do whatever I can to make this team better."
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Emmanuel cited the tradition of Florida State Football and his comfort with Atkins, noting that he had played for six different offensive line coaches while at Charlotte and that Atkins is a coach who is demanding but ultimately cares about the player as an individual.
"My first impressions of Coach Atkins, I honestly just saw how real he was," Emmanuel said, adding it was good to rekindle their relationship. "And obviously just throughout the time leading up to the season and offseason workouts, he's a guy that is going to push you on the field. And off the field, he really cares for you."
Emmanuel also revealed that he reached out and spoke to former FSU lineman Devontay Love-Taylor, who previously played at FIU, to gauge the competition in the ACC.
"He's a guy that came from Conference USA and made the transition to the ACC and obviously he was playing here, so that was definitely a guy that I wanted to reach bases with," Emmanuel said. "That was really probably the main person I reached out to."
A tackle and guard at Charlotte, Emmanuel said "there's not a spot he prefers" along the offensive line, adding he "loves to play any position" -- wherever that is to help the team win.
Beyond his connections to FSU's staff and reaching out to former players, Emmanuel spoke about the allure and tradition of FSU Football, even from afar.
"I used to watch on TV. Obviously, Florida State is a program that has been winning for a long time. Naturally, you see it on TV," Emmanuel said. "I wasn't too familiar with a lot of the stuff that goes on here, but when you just come to Florida State's campus and get the feel, they love football here.
"And it has a lot of tradition, a lot of great players who have played here, and gone on to the NFL and done a lot of good things after the NFL, too," Emmanuel said. "You just see the family vibe that is here. That's obviously something that attracted me to Florida State."
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council