"With all of the pieces in place for an entire summer, and a spring signing class already enrolling for class, the fall looks as though it could be quite a darling, and by most accounts—it would seem the media is taking notice."

Somewhere between here and Tallahassee, about three weeks ago, his massive 6-foot-2, 220-pound package of muscles and mayhem somehow crammed into his girlfriend's 2005 Chevy Aveo, James Wilder Jr. turned to Bianca Camardo and asked her, "Do you like Florida State?"

"It's tough," Ponder acknowledged. "I came into this program having high expectations. I wanted to compete at a national level and expected to compete at the national level. It's tough to be left out of that conversation and left out of that scene. It's something that's driven me.

"Obviously, I've been given a real opportunity to kind of change that. It's my last year, and I'd like to leave a legacy and get us back to that level.