The AJ Duffy Blog: Kickoff at IMG, Recruiting for Florida State
AJ Duffy is one of the most highly-recruited junior quarterback prospects in America, collecting more than 30 scholarship offers from programs coast to coast before committing to Florida State on April 28. He has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his experience as a high-profile recruit to his home life and preparation for his senior season.
What's up guys? AJ Duffy here with another blog.
Just walking back to my dorm right now. I've been back at IMG since July 17, so I had a short summer. Family is chillin' and will try to make it out to a couple of games so that could be cool.
Ever since we came back we've pretty much just been getting after it. We had workouts all summer, meetings, installing a new offense.
We got a new OC (offensive coordinator), who just came on in July. That's dope. I like his offense a lot. His name is Coach (Dave) Schramm, he's coached all over. He coached Derek Carr and Davante Adams at Fresno State. He coached at Utah, Utah State. Super experienced guy, great personality. He's fiery and wants us to be great so I feel like he's a great coach for me to have leading up to FSU and even for the program, he's a great guy to have around.
We've got a bunch of new players. A couple of new linemen, got a new receiver who I know pretty well -- Jaleel Skinner. He's a big target for me for FSU so it was cool to get him here to build that relationship. I know Skinner from Cam Newton workouts out in Georgia, 7-on-7 stuff. I met him and I know what he brings to the table. I was just real fired up when he came here. He's as good as advertised. He's big, long, fast, catches everything so it will be a lot of fun to use him. We'll use him all over the field this year.
With a guy like Skinner, I'm trying to tell him we have the opportunity to try to build what FSU had before. With him being a fan of FSU already, it helps a lot, too. Then with the class we are building, I tell him to come be a part of something great with a bunch of guys he's cool with and close with. He's real cool with Travis Hunter, he's building a relationship with me and he knows a bunch of the guys in the class already.
It's really dope to build the class because me being from Cali, shoot we have guys from all over. From Georgia, my guy big Lou (Aliou Bah), whose at IMG but originally from Memphis, Tennessee. So there's a bunch of different flavors but we all kinda mold together and we're all cool with each other. I can hang out with anyone in the class and it's cool.
It's deeper than football, almost. It's just the chemistry, they're all good guys. We're all recruiting guys with great character, just the type of guys you wanna be around. I talk to my guy Kevin Coleman a lot, he's one of the main ones I'm recruiting. I talk to my boy Fat Man (Kaytron Allen) about it a lot, the running back. He's committed to Penn State but I talk to him every day about it, just messing around trying to get him to change that up.
I'm not recruiting too many guys right now, though, I'm focused on the season.
It's really about re-building that chemistry because in the spring we had a bunch of practices, but some of those guys left. Then a bunch of new guys came in, so building new chemistry with the offense and the team as a whole.
It's been interesting. It's been the grind, but it's been a lot of fun. It's almost like college, how we're set up. We have meetings early, we gotta be up, we have practice in the morning and summer school after. So not a lot of time off but it's been a fun one so far.
I really can't wait to get out there and play my first game. I haven't played since my sophomore year so it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm just really excited.
It's August 20th against American Heritage. I think it will be a great game, shoot. Two of the best teams in Florida getting after it, it's gonna be fun.
Nothing changes for us. We're trying to win all of our games and win by a lot. Get that natty and try to beat everyone by as many points as we can. We'll try to score a lot, score fast, just really have fun out there.
Personally, I don't really have any goals, just to play to the best of my ability. Obviously win every game, but I don't care about touchdowns or stats, anything like that.
Thanks for stopping by the blog, I know it's been a minute but I'll check in after a few games go by and let you know how I feel about it.
The AJ Duffy Blog
1. Introduction