In-state recruiting battle for 5-star Armondo Blount heating up: He’ll be in Miami Hurricanes recruiting section this weekend

Miami (Fla.) Central 2025 Five-Star Plus+ defensive lineman Armondo Blount has only been a high school junior for little more than a month, but he’s been a recruiting priority for Miami and Florida State since he entered high school.

Blount, the No. 4 overall prospect in the On3 Industry Ranking and No. 2 defensive lineman in the class, was at Florida State’s season opener against LSU in Orlando last weekend and will be at Miami for the Hurricanes’ game against No. 23 Texas A&M this Saturday as the two schools make two of the most concerted recruiting efforts for the 6-foot-3.5, 250-pound prospect. Oregon and USC have also stood out to Blount since Aug. 1, when college coaches became permitted to directly call and text 2025 prospects.

Blount snuck in a July 31 trip to Coral Gables with his mother in the final few hours before the start of the Aug. 1 dead period to spend time with head coach Mario Cristobal and co-defensive line coaches Jason Taylor and Joe Salave’a. He talks to all three “every single day,” although he said Florida State is currently making a slightly stronger recruiting effort.

“I promise you, I talk to (Miami) every single day, and they say stuff like ‘Good morning,’ ‘How’s your day going?’ ‘How you doing?’ stuff like that,” Blount said. “Right now, FSU is (pushing the hardest). Every time I go there, there’s a new thing I like about them. Their D-line, the moves they work in practice, you watch them in the game and it all correlates. All the D-linemen are fast, and then when they rotate, they look the same. So they’ve got to be doing something right.”

However, Miami’s appeal of staying home, playing with other elite South Florida football recruits he’s already familiar with, and Cristobal’s connection with his mother have all stood out to Blount.

“My mom talks to Cristobal a lot,” Blount said. “I’ll come in the room, my mom will be like, ‘coach Cristobal’s on the phone!’ My mom, that’s my priority right there.”

Blount said his mother will ultimately support his final decision and “is rocking whatever I’m rocking,” but Miami has continued to steadily climb for the five-star prospect.

“Now that I’m getting to be around them more, it’s the culture they’ve got,” Blount said. “They’re bringing back Miami kids. Coach Cristobal’s recruiting kids from here, so that’s something I like too, because I want to play with people who are from where I’m from. If Cristobal pulls all of the recruits from South Florida, hey…” he added with a shrug and slight smile.

Blount plans to attend the Miami-Florida State game in Tallahassee this year as an FSU recruit, but he wants to attend any Miami games he can when he’s available.

CaneSport’s Take

The buzz early on is Blount could very easily stay in-state when it’s time to make his decision, and he’s trying to narrow down his list already, although he wants to take visits to programs like Alabama, USC, Ohio State and Michigan before he cuts down his list.

Miami and FSU have been the two most aggressive programs early on, and both schools are all in on a prospect who won’t sign for more than a year, although it feels like the Seminoles have a slight edge early on. It wouldn’t be a surprise if his recruitment came down to an in-state battle, although other programs will have their fair chance as well.

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