In Tatum Bethune, Florida State has a force to be reckoned with ... on and off the field

Even Tatum Bethune admits his workout routine back at Miami Central High School was kind of “crazy.”

Throughout the summer and fall, Bethune would drag himself out of bed at 4 a.m and head over to a local LA Fitness gym to work out with his personal trainer. Sometimes for one hour, sometimes two.

He then would join his teammates at Central and lift weights and run with them. Later in the day, he would get out on the field for a full practice with the perennial state power Rockets. And then he would often work out with his trainer for another hour each night.

“My high school grind was crazy,” Bethune said with a laugh. “I did that all summer and through the whole season.”

A ‘passion’ to be the best

Through eight games in his first season at Florida State, Bethune has enjoyed a great deal of individual success. He ranks second on the team with 53 tackles, second in tackles for loss with 8, and he also has 2.5 sacks.

But Florida State’s coaches and teammates say those numbers are not what make the redshirt junior linebacker special. It is how he prepares to make those plays — and the way he embraces every opportunity in his life — that truly set him apart.

It’s why FSU linebackers coach Randy Shannon, who coached Bethune for two years at UCF, offered such a strong endorsement when Bethune entered the transfer portal on Dec. 31, 2021. And why Mike Norvell was so excited to land the linebacker’s commitment just a few days later.

“From the first conversation I had with him, it was so clearly evident to me … this is a guy I want to coach,” Norvell said this week as Bethune and the Seminoles prepared to take on rival Miami tonight at 7:30 p.m. “Because you heard the passion. You felt the importance of being in the locker room.”

When he is evaluating players in recruiting, whether it be out of high school or the transfer portal, Norvell said he considers the off-the-field makeup first. He only wants players who are passionate about the sport, will care for their teammates and will embrace the work needed to become the best version of themselves.

The fact that Bethune racked up 108 tackles last season at UCF certainly caught the head coach’s attention. But productivity on the field is not the first — or even second or third — trait most Seminoles mention when asked about the Miami product.

Like Norvell, offensive coordinator Alex Atkins started with “passion.”

“He loves practice,” Atkins said. “That’s the first thing I noticed about Tatum when we got out there is he loves practice. And he practices at a speed that makes us get better and push.”

A family of educators

That approach is not reserved for the football field or the weight room. It is how Bethune tackles his academics as well.

The hard-hitting linebacker comes from a family of educators. His father, Gregory, was a longtime principal at Miami Central and is now a high-level administrator for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. His mother, Shovon, is a guidance counselor at Miami Jackson High.

Bethune’s great-great-great aunt is Mary McLeod Bethune, who is described by the National Women’s History Museum as, “one of the most important black educators, civil and women’s rights leaders and government officials of the twentieth century.”

Mcleod Bethune, who was a child of former slaves in South Carolina, founded a school for black girls in Daytona Beach in the early 1900s, and that school later merged with an all-male school to form Bethune-Cookman College in 1929.

“I came from a family where education was a huge thing,” Bethune said. “Like, even now, the main goal is not the NFL right now. It’s to get my degree and make sure my grades are straight. And that’s always the main focus. … Growing up, school was always the priority.”

It has never changed.

Of all his accolades at UCF, earning All-Academic Team honors from the American Athletic Conference is one he cherishes greatly. And when Florida State’s academic staff honors its student-athletes of the week, “I get mad if I’m not on it every week,” Bethune said.

“Academics is very important to me,” he said. “I just feel like if you have bad grades in school, why are you here? It wouldn’t sit right with me to not do well in school. If I’m doing something, I want to be the best in it.”

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‘My heart was in the trenches’

That dedication is evident in everything Bethune does. And it meshes perfectly with his physical nature in football.

From the time he first suited up for tackle football at the age of 5 at Pembroke Pines Optimist in South Florida, Bethune was different than the other kids. The coaches first tried him out at receiver and defensive back because of his speed.

Then they saw how much he loved collisions.

“I was an aggressive kid,” said Bethune, whose father, Gregory, starred at safety at Florida A&M in the early 1990s. “The way I hit people when I was little, nobody else was doing that. So they put me at O-Line. I was an offensive tackle. They just ran behind me every play.”

Some young football players might have bristled at the idea of blocking on the line — especially ones with his level of athletic ability. But Bethune loved it.

Truth be told, even at 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds, Bethune would prefer to be playing defensive line than linebacker today at Florida State.

“My heart was in the trenches,” he said. “I loved D-Line. I really want to play D-Line. I would rather get a sack than get an interception.”

Bethune racked up plenty of those back at Miami Central. While playing for one of the premier programs in the state, he recorded 14 sacks and 24 tackles for loss during his senior season.

Despite those statistics, Bethune wasn’t one of the highest-rated prospects in the country. Virtually every recruiting site listed him as a three-star prospect, and he had just eight or nine offers overall, with Auburn and Boston College being the only ones from Power 5 schools.

But it was his relationship with Shannon that drew Bethune to UCF. When Shannon was at the University of Florida, he invited the young defender to a camp in Gainesville and immediately saw the then-sophomore’s talent.

“You’re going to be special,” Shannon told him as soon as the camp ended.

With Shannon later moving on to UCF as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Bethune didn’t hesitate to sign with the Knights. And as much as he likes Shannon as a coach, he appreciates him even more as a person — which is a major reason why he followed him to Florida State earlier this year when Shannon was named co-defensive coordinator.

Just this past week, Bethune said, Shannon called him to his office and talked nothing about football. He asked him how his family was doing, whether he has a girlfriend, what else was going on in his life.

“It’s just little things like that is what I appreciate about Coach Shannon,” he said.

And Bethune could not be more grateful about his decision to join him again.

‘Happiest I’ve ever been’

While he enjoyed his time at UCF for the most part, the junior linebacker says he has never had more fun playing football than he has this season. In just 10 months, he has grown close with a number of players on the team. When he’s not hanging out with fellow linebacker Kalen DeLoach, he might be found fishing with quarterback Jordan Travis.

Just the other day, Bethune texted his father to tell him, “This is the happiest I’ve ever been playing college football.”

“I can’t pinpoint why, but it’s just like … I loved UCF. But that last year, I just wasn’t happy. Now, I’m happy. I’m ready to keep going. Last year, it was like I was just ready to get it over with. But now, I’m happy to come to meetings. I’m happy to be around people and be around the linebacker room. We’re all like brothers.”

With four regular-season games remaining, Bethune knows he soon will have to make a decision about his future. Although he has played four full seasons, he has an extra year of eligibility if he wants it because of the NCAA’s exemption for the 2020 COVID season.

A big part of his decision will be what feedback he receives from the NFL, but he added he is in no rush to chase a professional pay day. Bethune knows he could be playing even better this season if not for a groin surgery that sidelined him late in the spring.

“I’m not money-hungry or greedy or nothing like that,” Bethune said. “So if I need to come back, I’ll come back.”

His possible final four-game stretch begins today with a game Bethune has been eagerly anticipating since he joined the Seminoles in January.

When Florida State takes the field tonight against the arch rival Miami Hurricanes (7:30 p.m., ABC), Bethune will see a huge contingent of family members and friends in the stands. His immediate family will be there, of course — their home is within walking distance of Hard Rock Stadium — but there also will be loved ones who haven’t been able to make his games in Orlando or Tallahassee.

They all have been part of his journey.

They’re the ones who supported him throughout his ups and downs in athletics and encouraged him to achieve the highest goals possible in academics. To be the best he could be in every endeavor.

And Bethune would love nothing more than to put on a show with his Florida State teammates.

“I’m really excited to see my family there,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing for me.”

“He came here for a reason,” said Florida State defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said. “He wanted that competition. He wanted that experience of playing at a school like Florida State. And so we got his best when he got here because he had something to prove.”

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.