'Juice' Cryer embraces leadership role, sees bright days ahead for FSU Football

Justin Cryer was not a five-star recruit.

He hasn’t been named an All-American or won any All-ACC honors yet, and he has accumulated just 66 tackles in his collegiate career.

Yet Cryer, who teammates and coaches call, “Juice,” has become one of the most important players in a Florida State program that is striving to get back to national prominence. And over these last couple of seasons – despite a 2-10 campaign in which his season was cut short by injury – he has taken on a much larger leadership role.

In a sit-down interview with Warchant, Cryer reflected on his path to Florida State, his leadership style and the ups and downs of his collegiate career.

Among his strongest influences growing up was his older brother, Lionel “LJ” Cryer, who has gone on to a very successful college basketball career at Baylor and Houston.

“I just wanted to be like him, seeing how hard he worked every day,” Cryer said. “We were both raised to be really competitive. For me, it ended up being football, basketball and baseball because that’s what my older brother did.”

Juice was also inspired by his brother’s college recruitment, which started at a young age.

“He started getting college interest in middle school,” the younger Cryer said. “That was something that opened my eyes a little bit, because I had never seen the recruitment process up close before. For him, it kind of happened instantly; he was a star since elementary school. But we ended up having different paths. I had to wait my turn, fill my body out, get a little taller. And by the time the recruiting process came around for me, it was a little different.”

When it comes to leadership styles, Juice and L.J. could not be more different.

“I’ve always been like this — been the loud person, been the guy to step up in a room and take charge,” Juice said. “He’s completely the opposite — super quiet, wouldn’t know if he was there if he didn’t say anything. We’re two very different people.

“It was something that he had to work on growing up. My parents always tried to get him to say something, to take charge. But for me, it always came like that.”

And Cryer has leaned into those leadership skills during tough times during his first three years at Florida State.

“You can make a team of great athletes, but a team without good player-led leadership won’t live up to its fullest potential,” he said. “The best teams are player-led.”

Cryer knows that can be difficult to accomplish in today’s era of college football, when team rosters are constantly changing. As one of the few players on Florida State’s roster who has been a Seminole for more than two years, he said that is always on his mind.

“You never have the same team, really,” Cryer said. “Like even if you bring in guys that are older, this is their first time on the team. So you’re constantly trying to build new relationships. The past couple of years, just playing my tail off, showing up every day for workouts, showing up every day for practice, just going hard and doing my best and trying to earn respect that way.

“I’m not really someone who’s a big yell and screamer, I’m really more of an encourager. So, being someone that encourages the guys and just speaks life into each other. That’s kind of something I’m really proud of myself for doing.”

That’s not to say it has always been easy.

Cryer came to Florida State in the summer of 2023, and his first season saw the Seminoles win 13 games. He got playing time during that campaign and thought there would be more bright days ahead.

Instead, the ‘Noles went 2-10 just one year later.

“You never expect to go through anything like that,” he said. “Everyone went into the season feeling like we had a national championship team, but that’s not how it played out. Through it all, I tried not to hang my head and just show up every day. You drop it, you move forward, and you take it one day at a time.”

That can be easier said than done.

When he and Florida State’s other players were receiving criticism on social media during the 2024 season, Cryer tried not to let it bother him, but he definitely was paying attention.

In a recent Instagram post after the Alabama game, he posted screenshots from multiple tweets directed at him this past offseason. Some read, “Juice is not an FSU quality LB,” or “Cryer can hit the portal TBH, won’t play here next year.”

He kept receipts.

“I won’t sit here and lie to you and tell you it just kind of brushed off my shoulder and didn’t affect me. It did,” Cryer said. “Especially because it feels like these are supposed to be the people supporting you. Honestly, for myself, it doesn’t really matter that much. But hearing people talk about your coaches and teammates, that stuff really kind of affects you.”

That steady mindset has helped Cryer as he has taken on an expanded role in the defense this season. And he credits new Florida State defensive coordinator Tony White for facilitating that process.

Cryer recalls being skeptical of White’s 3-3-5 defensive system when the veteran defensive coach first arrived. But White took the time to allay those concerns.

“He made time for me, set up a time for me, and we just talked ball for 20-25 minutes,” Cryer said. “He gave me a full layout of what he wants to do. I told him how I felt about it: ‘Honestly, I don’t think this works this certain way.’ And the way he broke it down to me kind of changed my perspective.”

Fast-forward to this fall, and Cryer is a believer. He currently ranks third on the team with 22 tackles in five games.

“Throughout fall camp, I just kept feeling more comfortable, more confident,” Cryer said. “By the time we were starting to gear up for the first game of the year, I truly felt like we had something special defensively.”

Despite losses in the last two games, the Florida State defense has shown great improvement over last year and gave the team a chance to win against a high-powered Miami offense. The Seminoles currently rank in the top 30 nationally in both rushing defense and total defense.

Cryer believes some of that improvement is due to a battle-tested and experienced group of returners from last year’s 2-10 team.

Unlike the offense, the majority of the players on this year’s defense are not first-year Seminoles. Eight of the 11 starters against Alabama and seven of the 11 starters against Miami played for Florida State last year.

They have been through tough times before. And they know they have the leadership to persevere.

“We all believe in each other,” Cryer said. “This chemistry and camaraderie that we’ve built with this 2023 class over the last two years, and the ‘24 class last year, we’ve built something that we knew was special.”

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