Here's a bad-news quote from a FSU Rivals story on Darby:

And what about the rumors that Maryland is making a strong push?
"I took an official there for the Clemson game and it was a crazy game," he said. "But I'm not interested in Maryland. I keep hearing that but I'm not."

Too bad. We'd love to have him, but in the same story he specifically talks about wanting to run track and liking FSU's track program. So you can connect the dots and see how that would obviously be a major issue with Maryland. So among the big guns we're going after, I'd now rank them in terms of probability: 1. Diggs 2. Goldman 3. Darby. For whatever it's worth, I really can't see us getting any of them. I'll predict Auburn for Diggs, Alabama for Goldman, FSU for Darby. At least those are better programs to lose to than WVU, Virginia or Rutgers.

I think with Goldman, even though he cut us, you can't officially rule him out. We'll keep doing work there with Locks at the forefront. Darby, I think he's gone. Diggs, who knows, but there was an Auburn story on him over the weekend (he visited there) and when they asked him about his choices, he mentioned only 5: Auburn, UF, Cal, USC, Maryland.

Diggs sees unique things in them all, saying they all have a need at receiver, but admits one factor in his decision will stand above the rest. "Mostly playing time, location isn't that big of a deal, and family and tradition," said Diggs. "Being comfortable where I'm at. I have to stay here."

So if playing time and family are two major factors, that's great for us.

At this point, the class has improved quite a bit already and if we could get either Kirven or Reader as an interior DL, I think that would be great. Then fill the class with some late 3-star surprises, like how we got Pickett and Bowers at the end of the cycle last year.

Consensus seems to be that this class as it stands is ranked in the 35th to 45th range, and when you consider that the team went 2-10 and was a PR disaster just 2 months ago, I'd say things have improved dramatically. Now, if we can get back to being .500 or better and get off to a good start this fall, the negative buzz will die away and be replaced by positive momentum ... and then Locks leads us back into the recruiting top-25 for the '13 class.