Florida State’s 2027 recruiting class got another boost Wednesday, and this one came with a familiar kind of message for Seminoles fans: Mike Norvell is stacking in-state wins again.
The latest addition is four-star edge rusher Meshi Dobson, a Cypress Bay High School product who also moved up from the 2028 class to 2027. That makes him Florida State’s 17th commitment and pushes the Seminoles up to No. 35 nationally after spending last week outside the top 50.
Dobson, a Weston, Fla., native, chose Florida State over more than 30 scholarship offers. He also picked the Seminoles over Syracuse and Miami, adding another local name to a class that has started to take shape quickly after a slow start.
At 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, Dobson brings the kind of production that tends to turn heads. He finished his sophomore season at Cypress Bay with 72 tackles, 31 tackles for loss and 14 sacks. According to Dobson, Florida State sees him fitting into Tony White’s 3-3-5 scheme as both a “d-end and linebacker.”
His commitment arrives right after a busy stretch for the Seminoles. Last week, Florida State added 2027 four-star safeties Za’Kari Johnson and Ta’Shawn Poole, 2027 kicker Vance Fones and 2028 three-star tight end Troy Silberzahn.
Dobson’s pledge also gives first-year edge rusher coach Nick Williams another recruiting win in Florida. Williams has quickly built a reputation as a strong in-state recruiter, and Dobson had plenty of praise for him.
“He's got very good morals, and he's not just a coach to me, he's a very good, excellent role model to me," he said. "He does his job to look out for me.
He sends me film on what I need to be learning and what I need to be doing to get better. He sent me some moves and skills that I never knew,” Dobson told Blostein of Williams.
That kind of traction matters for a Florida State staff that has been under pressure to do a better job of landing talent from its own backyard. The new-look recruiting operation, including general manager John Garrett, has helped the Seminoles make progress. Seven of Florida State’s 17 commits in the 2027 class are from Florida, while six are from Georgia.
It’s a better balance than the program had before, and it’s a step forward after 17 of last year’s 34 commits came from Florida. Still, the class is missing the kind of elite in-state haul that would really change the conversation. Florida State landed only one of the top 25 players in Florida in the 2026 cycle, and it does not currently hold a commitment from any of the top 25 in-state prospects in 2027, according to 247Sports rankings.
That leaves the bigger question hanging over all of this: whether the recruiting surge is arriving in time. Florida State’s 2027 class is coming together well enough on paper, but those commitments won’t help this year’s team. And with Norvell’s future still uncertain, this season is the one that will decide everything.
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Norvell Faces One Offensive Question That Could Define Florida State
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The logic is obvious: when Florida State has been at its best, the run game has helped steady everything around it. Wisner arrives with a proven rsum from Texas, and the bigger question is whether this approach can do more than just balance the offense. It may end up being the part of the plan that decides how much pressure Norvell feels in Tallahassee. [Read more 🡒]