Grateful and Ready: D'Mitri Emmanuel Opens up About Seventh Year with FSU Football

Florida State offensive lineman D'Mitri Emmanuel was unsure whether a 2023 season in Tallahassee would become a reality. On Tuesday, however, Emmanuel could breathe a sigh of relief when he got a call from offensive line coach Alex Atkins.

"Coach Atkins, he had called me like yesterday right before meetings with the good news," Emmanuel said. "He'd been kinda like joking about it all spring and stuff, so he called me and told me everything got approved, and so it was really like a relief. It was just a great moment, honestly. It felt really good just to be back and to help the team next season."

For most of spring camp, Emmanuel had to watch from the sidelines as he waited on a waiver from the NCAA for him to be able to participate in a seventh year of college. Emmanuel spent his first five seasons in Charlotte, redshirting in 2017 and missing the entire 2018 season due to an injury prior to starting the final 25 games of his tenure with the 49ers. He transferred to Florida State for the 2022 season and immediately made an impact by starting all 13 games at right guard.

While he was obtaining the medical waiver for 2018, he could not participate in spring camp, but that wouldn't stop him from training for the NFL and being there for his teammates. He could routinely be seen in and out of huddles with a playbook and headphones, learning a different perspective of the game.

"Honestly, it just helped me see the game from a different perspective just from the coaches. Just helped me understand the offense even more," Emmanuel said. "Really see what we're actually trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish on offense, and then also just being able to help guys on the o-line certain things that I'm seeing."

Even though the process was long, it was clear that the university was going to do everything in its power to help him through the wait and set him up for success at the next level. Emmanuel even participated in FSU football's Annual Pro Day just in case his waiver was denied.

"Florida State compliance and everyone that was involved did such a great job helping me out and really fighting every day just trying to get updates and answers because obviously, you know, it took a while for everything to come through, so they did a phenomenal job, and I'm very grateful for that honestly for them fighting as hard as they did for me and it just shows you know the love they have for me, and it's just the same I have back from Florida State so I really appreciate it all."

Emmanuel enters the 2023 season as one of Florida State's most experienced options along the offensive line with 38 starts in his career. Despite that, he'll be competing for his job amongst one of the most talented and deep rooms that the position group has possessed in years.

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