CHARLOTTE — After the MRI results were in, Jimbo Fisher offered Derwin James, his sophomore safety and one of the most physically gifted players he’d ever recruited, some advice: “Don’t waste this opportunity.”
The safety-linebacker hybrid equally capable of changing a game in the defensive backfield, rushing the quarterback or stopping the run suffered a lateral meniscus tear in the knee in the second game of Florida State’s 2016 season after his knee buckled against Charleston Southern — an injury that required surgery and prevented the former stud recruit from playing again in his sophomore season.