'A 'Nole Forever' ... Former FSU star Lorenzo Booker returns with WR recruit son, Kayin Booker
Lorenzo Booker’s last game in a Florida State football uniform was so memorable that at least one fan brought it up to him Sunday afternoon — more than 15 years later.
In the Seminoles’ 44-27 Emerald Bowl victory against UCLA to cap off the 2006 season, Booker ran for 91 yards and two touchdowns, and he caught five passes for 117 yards.
This weekend, the former FSU running back stepped back inside Doak Campbell Stadium for the first time since that season. And it was as emotional as he expected.
“I never thought I’d be so happy to feel this heat and humidity in my life, but I am,” Booker said. “I stepped right off the plane, and it was like I never left.”
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For those who might not remember, Booker was Florida State’s top recruit in the 2002 signing class. He was the No. 1 running back in the country and chose FSU over Southern Cal and Notre Dame during a live broadcast on ESPN — something that never happened at the time but soon became a Signing Day fixture.
After splitting time with fellow tailback Leon Washington for most of his career and then becoming the Seminoles’ featured back in 2006, Booker went on to be a third-round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins. He spent most of the next six years in the NFL, on rosters with the Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.
This weekend, Booker returned to Tallahassee with his son, Kayin Booker, a rising junior in high school who participated in the Seminoles’ Elite Camp on Saturday and the Mega Camp on Sunday.
“I wanted to do the campus tour just as much as them,” Lorenzo Booker said, reflecting on how much FSU has changed since he left. “I felt like I needed it to a certain degree.”
Booker, who retired to his home state of California after his playing days, described watching his son run routes and catch passes inside Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday as, “surreal.” So much so that he had to step outside at one point to collect his thoughts.
“He was literally made in Tallahassee,” Booker said with a laugh. “He’s been hearing about it from me and his mother his entire life. Everywhere in the house is Florida State.”
Kayin Booker is not yet quite the celebrated recruit that his father was. Although he has a great frame at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds before his 16th birthday, he didn’t begin to focus on football until this past fall at St. Bonaventure High, the same school where Lorenzo shined 20 years earlier.
Before then, he spent most of his time playing basketball.
“At the start of my sophomore year, I decided to come over to football,” Kayin said. “Being 6-2 in basketball is not that big. But being 6-2 in football, that’s pretty big. So I figured by coming over to football I’d have a better chance at going D-I.”
The younger Booker has already received interest and scholarship offers from schools out West such as Colorado State, but his dream has always been to play at Florida State. He has been a fan of the Seminoles his entire life, and he grew up watching videos of his dad wearing the garnet and gold.
“I always watched him,” the younger Booker said. “I still watch them today. He was so quick. Nobody could catch him. Just way too quick.”
While Lorenzo’s game was built on speed and elusiveness, Kayin is already much bigger and more physical. The older Booker says he weighed about 170 pounds when he arrived in Tallahassee two decades ago, while his son is three or four inches taller and 30 pounds heavier.
Kayin is expected to be 6-foot-3 before he stops growing, according to Lorenzo.
“My wonder is, is he going to outgrow receiver and play tight end?” Booker said. “He’s already so big, and he’s only 15 years old. … He didn’t get that part from me (laughing).”
This actually was Kayin’s second trip to Florida State as a recruit; he came on another unofficial visit in March. He even wore his dad’s jersey, No. 28, during a recruiting photo shoot.
But this was his first chance to actually compete inside Doak Campbell Stadium.
“When we worked out in the stadium, they played the ‘chant,” Kayin said with a wide smile. “It was a pretty cool experience.”
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Emotions aside, this was mostly a business trip for the younger Booker and two friends who also made the trip — 2025 defensive back Drew Cofield, who also plays at St. Bonaventure, and 2025 tight end Stevie Amar of nearby Oaks Christian.
Kayin is eagerly working to earn a scholarship offer from Florida State, and he said he loved getting advice during the camps from FSU receivers coach Ron Dugans.
“He said to make sure I stay lower when I’m running,” the younger Booker said. “Don’t rise up when I’m about to break because the DB can see that. So just stay low when I’m running.”
He said he also enjoyed competing with the recruits who came into the camp with bigger reputations.
“All the top guys that Florida State was looking at were there — the four- and five-stars,” Kayin said, adding that he was never intimidated and felt like he held his own. “It was pretty cool.”
Regardless of how Kayin’s recruiting process plays out, Lorenzo Booker said he is itching to come back to Florida State this fall to watch a game. Like other Seminole fans and alumni, he said he lives and dies with every win and loss.
“I may not have been here physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually I’m a ‘Nole forever,” he said.
Booker’s only chances to see FSU in his post-playing days came in 2013 and 2014, when the Seminoles came out to Pasadena, Calif., to play in the national championship game and the first College Football Playoff.
“It was fantastic, but nothing beats being here,” he said. “I’ve got to see Doak alive. There’s still nothing like it.”
Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.
