Pugh: Lack of leaders root of ’Noles’ woes

TALLAHASSEE — What’s wrong with the Florida State Seminoles?

Just ask senior linebacker Jacob Pugh, who likened a season that started with College Football Playoff aspirations to a “nightmare” when asked Monday about FSU’s lackluster 2-5 campaign.

“[There is a] lack of leadership. … Everybody is just doing their own thing pretty much,” Pugh said.

“Everybody is worried about everything else. A lot of players are probably worried about the [NFL] draft or whatever else. Nobody is really focused.”

Florida State, which is preparing for Saturday’s game against Syracuse in search of its first win at Doak Campbell Stadium this season, is coming off its worst loss — a 35-3 letdown at Boston College Friday.

The Seminoles performed like a team deeply affected by poor play that has snowballed into the worst start in more than four decades.

“Our fans deserve better than that,” FSU coach Jimbo Fisher said of the loss. “They deserve us to play better than that, deserve us to compete better than that.”

As Fisher and Seminole players have tried to remain united on the field and while speaking to media, Pugh’s comments delivered telling insight as to the state of the football team.

Just four seasons ago, FSU was on top of college football behind quarterback Jameis Winston, winning Fisher’s first national championship in 2013.

The Seminoles were stacked with future NFL prospects like Winston, linebacker Telvin Smith, running back Devonta Freeman, wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin and defensive backs Lamarcus Joyner and Xavier Rhodes, who challenged other players around them to not settle for anything less than victory.

FSU doesn’t have that sense of pride or leadership from within anymore, Pugh said.

“It was much different,” he said of his first years on campus. “I feel like we had a lot of good players, too, back then. We have good players now, but I thought we had a lot of older guys that demanded respect and demanded us to play hard and fight with one another. “It ain’t like that now.” Fisher has tried to get his players to take solace in the notion they have been a play or two away from being victorious in games they’ve lost this season. He argues the Seminoles could easily be 5-2 instead of 2-5.

But a season-opening defeat to No. 1 Alabama and the loss of starting quarterback Deondre Francois to injury coupled with home losses to NC State, Miami and Louisville and last week’s loss at Boston College have the Seminoles enduring their worst mark in Fisher’s eight years as head coach.

The last time FSU started a season 2-5 was in 1976 — the first year of former legendary coach Bobby Bowden’s 33-year tenure with the Seminoles.

“I feel like we’d have more motivation or fight if we had won them,” kicker Ricky Aguayo said of the last-minute losses to Louisville and Miami. “The plays were there, we just had to make them.”

With the Seminoles at a crossroads, Fisher knows some change will be necessary. He does not plan to review potentially making assistant coaching moves until after the season, but has acknowledged the need to reevaluate the program moving forward.

“Sometimes there are drastic changes. Sometimes there are moderate changes. You have to evaluate that based on why things happen and what you have to do in your evaluations,” Fisher said. “And you’ve got to make changes.”

As for players emerging as leaders to help the Seminoles finish with a bowl berth, Fisher said he is looking for “guys that want to be the solution.”

Pugh believes that solution will be tough find at this point.

“It’s too late now. They should’ve did that at the beginning of the season,” Pugh said of his teammates’ lack of leadership. “It’s too late to try and demand. Everybody is already [stuck] in their ways. It’s too late.”