Florida State confirmed Tuesday morning that freshman cornerback Chuck Kennon was removed from the roster a day earlier. The explanation, from a school spokesperson who was not named, ran eight words: “He was removed for conduct detrimental to the team.”
That is all the program has said, and it arrived four days before the Seminoles host an unbeaten Miami team Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Kennon was the highest-rated signee in Florida State’s 2026 recruiting class and the only top-100 player in it.
The 247Sports Composite had him at No. 41 nationally and No. 3 among cornerbacks. On 247Sports’ own board he was No. 51 overall and the No. 6 cornerback with a 97 grade. He committed on July 6, 2025, and enrolled early in January.
The charges, and the limits of what is known
Court records viewed by the New York Post list three charges: aggravated fleeing to elude, a second-degree felony; false imprisonment, a third-degree felony; and resisting an officer without violence, a misdemeanor. Those are charges, not convictions, and they should be read that way until a court says otherwise.
According to those records, the chase began in Ybor City, and the Durango involved reportedly reached speeds in excess of 150 mph. The vehicle ran a red light, hit a curb and blew a tire, and the driver fled on foot into an industrial plant. A woman with lacerations on her arm told police she had asked to be let out of the SUV more than 10 times. A phone was recovered inside the vehicle.
Kennon turned himself in Monday and is being held at Falkenburg Road Jail. The booking photo came from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which is the confirmed booking agency. Several basic details are not publicly established: the exact date of the arrest, the bond amount or status, which agency made the arrest, and whether Kennon has retained an attorney or entered a plea. Anyone telling you how this resolves is guessing.
Florida State lost a class, not a starter
On the field, this costs the Seminoles almost nothing Saturday. Kennon played one game in 2026, late in the 38-7 win over Virginia on Oct. 3. The defense that lines up against Miami was not built around him.
The real damage is to the 2026 class. Take Kennon out of it and Mike Norvell’s seventh recruiting haul has no top-100 player left at all. For a program spending every week trying to convince prospects it is still a destination, that is the part that lasts past this weekend.
And this weekend is already the problem. Florida State is 3-3 and 1-2 in the ACC after a 44-20 loss at Louisville that Norvell described without any cushion. “Too many times, we didn’t show the detail, the discipline, the mental toughness that’s necessary on the road,” he said.
Now an undefeated Miami team walks into Tallahassee while Norvell answers questions about a roster move he will not explain in detail. He does not owe the public the specifics of a pending criminal case, and he should not offer them. But a 24-point road loss followed by a dismissal four days before Miami is a brutal stretch for a coach already being asked whether year seven is heading anywhere.
Both things are true at once. Florida State will play its biggest home game of the season without the highest-rated player it signed in this recruiting class, and the only official word on why is eight words long.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.