During official visits, college programs will come up with all sorts of unique photoshoots with their recruits. We’ve seen recruits take photos sitting on Lamborghinis, outside private jets, and more.
One of the most recent photoshoots to go viral was when four-star quarterback Jaden O’Neal was handed keys from Florida State QB Thomas Castellanos, resulting in a pretty cool photo. While the photoshoot went viral, one analyst is saying that the Seminoles copied this idea from the Colorado Buffaloes.
Colorado Analyst Claims Florida State Copied Buffaloes’ Recruiting Photo, Tactics
Jaden O’Neal is a four-star quarterback in the 2026 class, ranked in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the 14th-best signal-caller in the country.
O’Neal recently committed to Florida State after taking an official visit to Tallahassee, where he took a photo with Seminoles quarterback Thomas Castellanos. The image featured Castellanos passing car keys to O’Neal, representing that the four-star recruit would be taking over the program when Castellanos leaves.
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The photo exploded on the internet, with many thinking it was an awesome idea. But despite the overall support of the photo, one Colorado Buffaloes analyst is claiming that FSU stole the photo idea from Deion Sanders.
On the “Locked On Buffs” YouTube channel, host Kevin Borba explained that Colorado first did this back in June 2024 when Shedeur Sanders passed keys to former five-star Julian Lewis.
“The Colorado Buffaloes, they pioneered… a passing of the torch sort of recruiting style picture, when it came to recruiting Julian Lewis,” Borba said. Borba isn’t wrong, as the Buffs did in fact do this, but he’s not happy that he’s the only one recognizing it.
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“On Sunday, Florida State pulled off the same darn style. They landed a four-star quarterback, Jaden O’Neal, and then they have Florida State’s current quarterback, Thomas Castellanos, passing him the keys,” Borba said.
It’s understandable why Borba is upset that the college football world isn’t realizing that this photo wasn’t an original idea by the Seminoles, but the fact of the matter is that recruiting tactics are stolen all the time.
College programs always take ideas from each other. Whether it’s play calls, certain schemes, or even recruiting photo shoots, nothing is ever anyone’s actual property in the sport, and Florida State took the Buffs’ idea and ran with it.
It’s not like the Seminoles claimed that it was an original idea; they just thought it was cool and implemented it on O’Neal’s official visit.
This is what happens in the college football offseason. Fans get bored and start complaining about things that simply do not matter. So while Borba may be right that the Seminoles used the Buffaloes’ photoshoot idea, it’s really not that big of a deal at all.
If anything, Borba’s rant highlights that the season needs to arrive, and it needs to arrive fast.
