Ricky Knight III Believes FSU Football's Wide Receiver Room Will Prove Doubters Wrong

The true freshman has been impressed with the amount of talent on the other side of the ball early in his career at Florida State.

There was a time when Ricky Knight III wasn't sure he'd be in a position to play college football. From his freshman through junior years, he didn't receive a ton of interest or communicate much with coaches. That all changed last winter as Florida State became the first program to extend Knight III a scholarship and from there, the gates opened.

Knight III ended up receiving nearly 15 offers as schools such as Miami, Penn State, Texas A&M, and Illinois all joined his recruitment. With that being said, he couldn't stop thinking about the Seminoles, who not only got in the door early but also built a close relationship with Knight III and his family.

"Florida State was my first offer. Norvell himself called me, first he called my mom though, funny story. He thought my number was my mom's number so he ended up texting her but he ended up calling me," Knight III said during his introductory press conference on Wednesday. "From the start, they really showed me a lot of love, they was really like on top of me and just not me but they were on my family also."

"Honestly, coach Norvell, he was just the realest to me. I felt like he was one of the realest people I ever met. He told me from the start if I wasn't ready to work this place wasn't for me. He told me, ' this is where we come to work, this is where we shine, this is where we climb'. All in all, they just made me feel loved, they made me feel like family from day one," Knight III continued. "That love never changed even when I committed. You know, some people, the coaches tend to fall off but they stayed on top of it all the whole way through so that ultimately led me to come here. And, just with God, I had some talks and my heart was just here. Every time I visited here I had a different feeling than other schools so I knew that was my calling and this was the place to be."

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Outside of being impressed with head coach Mike Norvell, Knight III also did his homework on defensive backs coach Patrick Surtain Sr. He ended up convinced that Surtain Sr. would be the best option to develop him on and off the field.

"I didn't know coach Surtain personally but I knew of him - he's one of the greats. My relationship with him now is like that's my guy, that's my main man. We joke a lot, we definitely work hard at practice, we do a lot of study sessions when we can," Knight III said. "Coach Surtain, he really played a big part also in my recruiting process because when I looked at who would be coaching me throughout the year, you've got to look at who is the position coach, you got to look at his accolades, the things he's done, and all of it speaks for itself so I thought there was no better to coach me than him."

It hasn't taken much time for Knight III to fit in with Florida State's defensive backfield since arriving in Tallahassee. The Seminoles are putting in a lot of work to be at their best in 2024.

"Really the whole DB room, we're a unit together. Our saying is 'E L I T E', elite, so we do everything elite, we work together," Knight III said. "Sunday we're out on the sand, I'm going to start going to those, they've been doing that since they've been here. When we're on the field we're always communicating with each other, we do film sessions with each other and we're just, or the most part, always around each other. So everything we do, we try to do it elite and we're always working together. In my opinion, I feel like we definitely put in a lot of work, like, we try to outwork everybody."

At the end of the day, iron sharpens iron and a big reason why Knight III feels like he's getting better is due to the talent on the other side of the ball. The wide receivers have caught his attention with their speed as he was quick to offer praise to a variety of players in the room.

Knight III doesn't believe the unit should be considered one of Florida State's weaknesses. In fact, he thinks the wide receivers are about to open some eyes.

"With our receiver room, we have speed. Let's just put that out there. I want everyone to know we truly have speed. Those guys are running," Knight III said. "We definitely have some great guys in the room, a lot of our guys can run a lot of routes, they've got great hands. Elijah Moore is definitely going to be great for us this year, I feel like he's going to make a good impact for us this year and for the year's coming. We've also got a lot of freshmen receivers that's going to make a pretty big impact. I feel like Lawayne McCoy is most definitely going to have a good impact for us, Malik Benson is definitely going to have a big impact. A sleeper that I don't think most people think about, I feel like Deuce Spann and Kentron Poitier is definitely going to be big for us. Jalen Brown, of course."

"We've got guys on top of guys on top of guys so at the receiver room, a lot of people think that's our weakness, I don't know why. If ya'll look at our receiver room we really have some guys," Knight III continued. "Ja'Khi Douglas, we've got Jaylin Lucas who can play receiver. So like it goes on and on and on so I think that's definitely going to be a sleeper this year and a lot of people are going to be awakened when they come out on the field."

Being a summer arrival, Knight III is a little behind the eight ball compared to other freshmen or newcomers in his class who went through the offseason program and spring practice with the Seminoles. That makes a path to playing time uncertain during his first year at Florida State.

Regardless, Knight III just wants to continue developing and learning from those in front of him. He realizes that a consistent tractory upward combined with a constant effort will put him in a position to compete at FSU over the coming season.

"Personally, I feel like another big part of my game is my IQ like the smart level of the game. So I feel like that's another piece of the game I want to continue to grow, I want to be able to know all the plays like the back of my hand and also I want to learn from the older guys," Knight III said. "Even if I don't end up playing this year a lot or even if I end up playing, I just want to keep working, and keep showing effort and showing the coaches what I can do. And just making plays, I want to be a playmaker for the team so this upcoming year I'm going to do everything I can to show I'm really that guy, I'm like that."

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