You can finally close the book on 2008 signee Melvin Ray and a potential return to Alabama. Per the Tuscaloosa News:
After giving up on a pro baseball career and spending a semester at Tallahassee Community College working toward college eligibility, former University of Alabama signee Melvin Ray Jr. has decided not to pursue a football career at UA, his father told The Tuscaloosa News. Instead, the former four-star recruit has formed plans to return to TCC in the spring and join the Florida State football program as a walk-on beginning with the summer of 2011.
"We were disappointed things didn’t work out at Alabama," Ray Sr. said. "He is going back to Tallahassee Community College for one more term, and after that, he just decided he was going to stay here and play at Florida State."
Hard to say what caused this one to end like it did, but I'll speculate and point out that Ray is a Tallahassee native, so it probably was mainly due to the fact that FSU would be cheaper (in-state tuition) and it's closer to home. It probably also doesn't hurt things that the FSU program has a much brighter future now with Jimbo Fisher in charge than it did with an aging Bobby Bowden three years ago. One way or the other, best of luck to Ray in Tallahassee. I'd have been nice to have him in crimson and white, but we're not exactly starving for raw talent at the receiver position anyway, and it's hard to miss something you never really had in the first place.