The controversy surrounding Bobby Bowden’s ouster at Florida State was still swirling as Jimbo Fisher watched the fax machine spit out the names of eight ESPN150 recruits during his first signing day in 2010. In all, he landed two five-star recruits and 11 four-star players for what was the sixth-ranked class in the nation.
It was a stellar haul for the first-year head coach, and it certainly helped to quiet some of those initial critics, but the real rewards wouldn’t be seen for four years.
In 2013, a hefty chunk of Fisher’s first class had moved on -- some, like Bjoern Werner, to the NFL, and others, like five-star signee Jeff Luc, through attrition.