Florida State‘s top-ranked commitment in the 2024 class, KJ Bolden, returned to Tallahassee this weekend for a packed out primetime victory over Duke. This was the Buford (Ga.) five-star’s fourth time seeing the Seminoles play in-person this season, but just the first time he’s watched them inside Doak Campbell Stadium on primetime.
“The game was cool,” Bolden said. “It was scary, being down in the first half. But you know, Coach Norvell talked to the guys before they went into the locker room. I guess he had to give a motivational talk, and they came out in the 2nd half as a different team, started executing and got the certain things done.”
Regarding the defensive back unit’s performance, the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder shared what stood out to him on the night.
“I feel we do the same thing every week, you know, we show out and make plays. My boy (Shyheim) Brown got a pick, the diving pick. I feel like our defensive back room is definitely nice right now, making a lot of plays, and I feel like teams can’t really throw the ball a lot on us.”
Bolden expanded on Shyheim Brown’s interception.
“That was a crazy interception. Just diving and reaching for it, and we needed that play actually. So him just coming and making that play, stepping up. I think that was his first interception, so definitely one of the most exciting plays of his career. I know he feels really good this morning.”
After his last trip to Tallahassee on Oct. 7 when FSU faced Virginia Tech, he said, “When you come here uncommitted, it’s a great experience. But when you come back committed, it’s definitely probably a better experience because everyone knows you, everyone wants a picture and autograph.” He explained whether it felt similar this time around Doak Campbell Stadium.
“Yeah, definitely. A night game, everybody here, a sold out crowd. Being committed, everybody knows you around the area, so everywhere I’m walking, you just hear “KJ,” and people screaming my name and stuff like that, so it was definitely crazy for sure.”
With so many notable recruits on campus for the game, Bolden explained whether he put on his own recruiting hat on Saturday.
“Definitely was recruiting a lot of guys, a lot of younger guys like 2025 and 2026. Just walking them through and telling them to watch Florida State, and that this place is special. It definitely felt great to come home and recruit guys, because I know when I used to go other places, the commits would recruit me, so I wanted to do that for sure.”
Before his departure on Sunday morning, Bolden spoke head coach Mike Norvell. He revealed some of that conversation.
“He was just saying that the team has to keep going, you know, you have two away games (back-to-back). Can’t let up. Duke was ranked, but the other two teams aren’t going to play like they aren’t ranked, so you can’t walk in there with a different mindset of ‘this team is not as good as other teams we’ve played.'”
Bolden said there’s about “eight or nine schools” still working to flip him from FSU, namely programs like Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, and Oregon.
Regarding visits to other programs this season, he said he “might go to Auburn or Alabama, but other than that, I don’t really know yet. I’ll probably just chill for a minute.”
He said he will “probably” be back in town when FSU plays Miami and use his FSU official visit in December.
Bolden also noted that he cannot share much detail on it, but the possibility of joining the team for bowl game practices is being discussed.
According to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite rankings, Bolden slots as the No. 1 safety prospect and the No. 11 overall prospect in the class of 2024.
