Jimbo Fisher goes in on Nick Saban, FSU softball NCAA regionals, Seminoles baseball, football, recruiting

Thanks for listening to Noles News Now, your audio home for all things Florida State here on the Tomahawk Nation podcast network. I’m your host Brian Pellerin here on this Friday morning May 20th. If you’re not following already, it’s a pretty good weekend to plug into the FSU softball and baseball teams. One getting set to host a regional to start its journey to the College World Series. The other trying to make a statement and put themselves firmly in the hosting position themselves. We’ll get you prepared for both those teams coming up in a few but we start with the college football beef dominating sports headlines as three of the game’s most prominent coaches go to battle over NIL and recruiting and yeah FSU has some ties to it all. It actually started on Wednesday night when Nick Saban while speaking with boosters in Alabama named specific schools — those being Texas A&M, Jackson St, and Miami — that he felt were playing outside the rules in recruiting players. That back and forth ended with some public reprimands from the SEC Commissioner to basically shut up. Meanwhile, the rest of the sport sitting back to see what, if any, action the NCAA takes in looking into Saban’s claims. Could that mean an investigation into Hunter’s recruitment, Cristobal’s rising recruiting efforts in Coral Gables and A&M’s ascension to the greatest recruiting class ever constructed? Time will tell. All that’s left is time — probably just a few hours by the time you listen to this — from the start of the NCAA Softball Tournament Tallahassee Regional. The Noles are the No. 2 overall seed in the tourney and No. 1 seed in this regional. They’ll open competition tonight on ESPN+ against Howard at approximately 8:30. The timing on that is dependent on the finish of Game 1 tonight between Mississippi State and USF. In case you need a refresher, regional play is a double-elimination style tournament with one team advancing to the Super Regionals. The Noles would host the winner of the Missouri regional in that Super Regional if they advance. If you’re looking for a deep dive into the other teams competing this weekend, check out Gwyn Rhodes’s preview on Tomahawk Nation dot com or listen to this week’s Seminole Wrap podcast that breaks down the threat each team may pose to Florida State’s chances of moving on. Hopefully, Monday we’ll have a Super Regional to preview for you. For the baseball team, the goal remains piling up wins to try and secure a top 16 seed in the men’s tournament. D-1 baseball moved FSU into one of those positions in their tournament projections after last weekend’s series win against Miami, but the midweek loss to Florida leaves little room for error as the Noles headed to Chapel Hill face UNC in a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series. But early on, it was the Heels who took off. Four first-inning runs. Not how you draw it up. It would remain that way into the fourth before Florida State’s freshman came to the rescue. Jaime Ferrer and James Tibbs would lead big chargeback including an 8th inning two-run bomb from Tibbs off the UNC closer that gave FSU the 5-4 lead. That duo combined for 2 HRs, 4 runs, and 3 RBIs. The Noles held that lead into the bottom of the ninth, but they couldn’t hold it. For the second consecutive game, the Florida State bullpen allowed a walk-off homer. This one a three-run shot from Alberto Osuna, his second three-run homer of the game. He drove in 6 by himself. Noles lose 7-5. For all the ins and outs, check out the 3 up, 3 down article on our website. Tomorrow’s matchup is expected to be a matchup on lefties with Parker Messick and Brandon Schaeffer figuring to go for the Noles and Heels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices