Florida State has picked up a transfer from Florida A&M, leaving the HBCU baseball program across town to pick up the pieces.
Jackson McKenzie, one of the biggest bats in the FAMU lineup this season, has committed to Florida State. The move sends the Rattlers’ top power threat across town to the ACC program that once employed FAMU head coach Jamey Shouppe for more than two decades.
That alone makes the transfer notable. The backstory makes it sting a little more.
Shouppe spent years at Florida State helping build talent under legendary head coach Mike Martin. He was part of several Florida State teams that made deep postseason runs and reached the College World Series. But Shouppe never got the Seminoles’ head coaching job that many believed he had earned a shot at after his long run inside the program.
Instead, Florida State eventually handed the program to Mike Martin Jr., the son of the longtime head coach, after Martin Sr. retired. Martin Jr. lasted three seasons before being fired in 2022 after Florida State failed to advance out of the NCAA regionals in back-to-back postseasons.
Shouppe, meanwhile, rebuilt his career at FAMU.
Shouppe rebuilt FAMU baseball
When Shouppe arrived, FAMU baseball was coming off a brutal stretch. The Rattlers had lost 40 games in each of the previous two seasons before his arrival. Under Shouppe, FAMU became competitive again, first in the MEAC and later in the SWAC.
That is why McKenzie’s move to Florida State carries a little extra weight.
The transfer portal and NIL make every athlete fair game. Players have earned the right to seek better opportunities, bigger stages and stronger fits. Still, there is no way around the optics. A player who became a star at FAMU under Shouppe is now headed to the very school that never made Shouppe its head coach.
McKenzie gave FAMU plenty before leaving.
He batted .397 this season with 50 hits, 36 runs, 12 home runs and 52 RBIs. He finished with 103 total bases and an .817 slugging percentage, giving the Rattlers a dangerous middle-of-the-order bat.
His biggest moment came during the 2026 SWAC Tournament at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham. McKenzie hit for the cycle in FAMU’s 15-6 quarterfinal win over Southern, adding another highlight to a season that made him one of the league’s most dangerous hitters.
Now Florida State gets that bat.
For FAMU, it is the cost of doing business in modern college athletics. For Shouppe, it has to feel like a familiar program reaching across town and taking one more piece of what he helped build.