Top-5 Safety KJ Bolden Arrives for Multiday Unofficial Visit to Florida State

Florida State’s coaching staff has been attracting top recruits to campus throughout the offseason. After winning ten games last season and looking primed for more in 2023, it hasn’t taken a lot of effort to get prospects on campus this spring.

On Monday afternoon, one of the most highly ranked recruits in the country arrived in Tallahassee to begin a multiday unofficial visit - Five-Star safety KJ Bolden. Regarded as the No. 4 overall prospect and No. 1 safety in the 2024 class according to 247Sports, it’s been nearly two years since his last trip to Florida State in June 2021.

Bolden was greeted by the entire coaching staff to kick off his visit, including head coach Mike Norvell, defensive backs coach Patrick Surtain Sr, offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, and defensive coordinator Adam Fuller. This will be the first opportunity for him to meet with Surtain Sr. in person after he was hired by the program in January. It’s expected that the Georgia native will remain on campus into Tuesday to observe Florida State’s tenth practice of the spring.

Five-Star Safety and Top-5 prospect KJ Bolden (@KhalilBolden2) has arrived at #FSU for a multiday visit. He was greeted by a majority of the staff including @Coach_Norvell, @CoachAAtkins, @psurtain23, and @CoachAdamFuller. #Tribe24 pic.twitter.com/iD9T8VD9SL
— Dustin Lewis (@DustinLewisNG) April 3, 2023

This is a huge opportunity for the Seminoles to make a splash with an elite prospect. Florida State made his top-15 in January which included Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oregon, and others. Since then, Bolden has scheduled official visits to Alabama and Ohio State while also checking out Clemson, Auburn, and Arkansas unofficially.

The Buford High School product played in 12 games as a junior and contributed on both sides of the ball. He caught 23 passes for 422 yards and two touchdowns on offense while totaling 43 tackles on defense. Bolden averaged over 20 yards per catch as a sophomore during the Wolves’ run to a state championship.

Bolden is expected to settle in at safety at the college level due to his natural ability as a defender. He’s also a freak athlete that has recorded a 100-meter dash of 10.76 seconds and a triple jump of over 42 feet.

Florida State has two safeties committed in its 2024 class - four-star prospect Jordan Pride and three-star prospect CJ Heard. With that being said, the Seminoles have put a focus on expanding the board at the position since early in the year. There are questions surrounding Pride’s commitment status despite a visit in March and Heard’s future may be at linebacker depending on how he fills out.

The Seminoles don’t just covet Bolden because of his recruiting by recruiting services. He possesses the size and range that the coaching staff searches for in the backend. Bolden stands at 6-foot-1, 185-pounds which is similar to other safeties on the board such as Four-Star Ricardo Jones (6-3, 200), Four-Star Jalewis Solomon (6-1, 185), Four-Star Travaris Banks (6-1, 190), Three-Star Jarvis Boatwright (6-1, 170), and Three-Star Chalil Cummings (5-11, 175).

As it stands, FSU’s 2024 recruiting class is regarded as the No. 6 overall haul in the country according to 247Sports. The Seminoles hold eight verbal commitments after parting ways with Three-Star defensive tackle Keishawn Mashburn last week. We’ll see how things progress with Bolden over the next two days.

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