'Noles evaluating rising defensive end Asani Redwood

Florida State has been hitting the recruiting trail at defensive end hard the past two recruiting cycles. After the decommitment of Trevion Williams, the board for Mike Norvell and his staff has started to open up. One of the recruits the coaching staff is looking at is Suwanee-Collins Hill (GA) athlete Asani Redwood.

With the decommitments of Nyjalik Kelly and Trevion Williams, Florida State is still evaluating emerging talent as they look to continue to improve the defensive end room. As I have explained before, it is not uncommon to see senior season late bloomers, especially when they are new to the game like Asani Redwood is.

The 6-foot-3, 250 pound defensive end is having a stellar senior year in Georgia’s most competitive class. With 69 tackles, 14 sacks, 25 tackles for loss and 41 quarterback hurries, it’s easy to see why Asani is catching college coaches' attention. As Redwood said, he expected things to start slowly but he’s happy things are picking up steam.

“This year is my second year playing football,” Redwood said to NoleGameday's Nate Greer. “Before then I always played soccer and rugby. I was always interested in playing football. When I moved here, my history teacher, who’s one of the coaches, was always telling me to come try out. I did and I liked it.”

“I didn’t start until the 4th game of the season last year,” Redwood continued. “Coach Toney and I worked really hard over the summer. All of that extra effort has paid off. Recruiting has been slow as I expected, but I am going to continue to push it at my school. Once I get that first offer, it’ll be great, but I’m focused on my team (right now).”

Asani says the coaches he’s heard from look at him as a multi-dimensional force in college.

“Yeah, I can rush the passer but I’m also good at stopping the run,” Redwood said. “Rugby taught me how to properly tackle and how to have that aggressiveness. My coaches use me against the running backs that like to run outside zone. College coaches tell me I am a hard person to reach. Between my speed and my 6-foot-8 wingspan, I am able to keep offensive linemen off of me. I am able to pick up on what linemen do and I can use different techniques to beat them.”

FSU’s initial contact with Redwood has been through his high school coaches. This past weekend he was in Tallahassee to watch the game versus UMass.

“The FSU visit was great, it felt good to be there especially after the coaches approached me by name,” Redwood said. “That made me feel really comfortable with them. I never expected a big-time school like FSU to recruit me but that visit was really fun.”

“I think FSU is a good school for me,” Redwood continued. “I was watching number 11 - he’s one of the best in the nation. I can see it watching him, how different it is in college and how it looks. Between that and the family feel, I really enjoyed it there. I think I am going to go to the Miami game with Travis [Hunter] and some coaches.”

Asani is teammates with the nation’s top player and FSU commitment Travis Hunter. He says playing with a player like Hunter has been a great experience for him.

“Travis is actually the one who brought me up to the coaches at FSU as someone to look at,” Redwood said. “He’s just a great teammate. You’d think that he’d be overconfident and selfish with all the attention, but he’s just so calm and humble. He motivates us. Even though he’s injured he’s there every day on the sidelines talking. He’s a great spirit. It’s been a benefit playing with him.”

Redwood said that he’s planning on majoring in medicine in college so schools like Duke, North Carolina and Vanderbilt are schools he has an interest in. He plans on visiting Clemson this weekend. Look for him to sign in February.

Stay tuned to NoleGameday as we track the rest of Redwood’s senior season.

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