One of the top overall recruits of the class of 2016 will not be attending Florida State as planned.
247Sports reported on Friday that four-star defensive tackle Shavar Manuel (6-foot-4, 290 pounds, Bradenton, FL) will not be enrolling at Florida State, even though he had signed with the Seminoles back in February. Manuel will instead go the junior college route, with 247Sports reporting that he has signed with Fort Scott C.C. in Kansas.
The same source says that Florida State has been working with him over the past few weeks in picking a JUCO to attend. Manuel will need to get his AA degree before becoming eligible. The family believes he could be out of JUCO in a year and a half.
Florida State had one of the top recruiting classes for the 2016 cycle, so this is a departure that they can easily survive. However, Manuel is the No. 67 overall recruit of 2016, and it is never fun to lose a guy rated that high.
The way things look, though, is that if Manuel does complete his JUCO requirements, he will likely be back at Florida State in two years. He could go somewhere else after that, too; Manuel was originally committed to Florida before flipping to Florida State earlier this year. That has nothing to do with the decision making here, but in two years, it could mean that Manuel may want to play FBS football team instead of the Noles.
