Boiling point
Jimbo Fisher and a fan exchange heated words after Florida State’s latest loss
On national signing day in February, only four programs — Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and Michigan — brought in recruiting classes ranked higher than Florida State, according to Rivals.com. The year before, it was only Alabama. In 2015, Alabama and Southern California had higherrated classes overall, but Florida State had a nation-leading five recruits with five-star designations. And in 2014, just a month after winning a national championship, Jimbo Fisher’s fourthranked class fell behind only Alabama, LSU and Ohio State.
In other words, there does not appear to be a talent problem at Florida State. But there is a football problem, one that reached its crescendo Saturday when Fisher got into a verbal exchange with a fan walking off the field after a 3128 loss to Louisville. The fan supposedly told Fisher to “get new coaches,” to which Fisher responded something along the lines of the fan should come out of the stands and say it to his face.
Let’s assume Fisher was not serious about that invitation to engage in fisticuffs with a fan and put his $44 million contract at risk. And given what happens in the heat of the moment, it was a relatively harmless exchange.
But it does reveal the simmering frustration among Florida State fans at the way this season has unfolded. It’s not unfair, either.
The Seminoles, who were ranked No. 3 in the preseason, are just 2-4 and have moved to the brink of a historically bad year. This is a program that hasn’t missed a bowl game since 1981. This is a program that has finished in the top-10 three of the last four years. This is a program
that has signed 13 five-star players over the last four recruiting cycles, more than Ohio State. This is a program that annually gets talked about in the same breath as Alabama since winning the national title in 2013.
And now this is a program now that isn’t getting anywhere close to the same results as the programs in its elite recruiting stratosphere.
Florida State’s dominant stretch of 27-1 with Jameis Winston as quarterback has given way to a new, underachieving reality. After starting 6-0 in 2015, the Seminoles lost a shocker to Georgia Tech on a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown. With that game as the starting point, Florida State is just 14-10 in its last 24 games against FBS opponents.
So while some may want to write this season off as a series of bad breaks for the Seminoles, starting with quarterback Deondre Francois suffering a terrible injury toward the end of the season opener against Alabama, it’s completely fair to question if there’s a more worrisome trend.
No, FSU hasn’t gotten great quarterback play from true freshman James Blackman. But if Ohio State lost J.T. Barrett or Alabama lost Jalen Hurts, you simply couldn’t envision this kind of slide because those programs are so strongly built in all facets that they would win games anyway. With Florida State, though, there are too many other weak spots: An offensive line that is just OK, a group of wide receivers that is decidedly average for an elite program, etc. And then there’s the defense, which is proving to be overrated.
Florida State’s defense had plenty of opportunities to beat Louisville and couldn’t. It had plenty of opportunities earlier in the month to snuff out Miami and couldn’t.
So when fans try to reconcile the way Florida State recruits with the way it has played recently, the finger obviously will point toward the coaches. Fisher is a top-level head coach, but he’s also stubborn and loyal when it comes to a staff many outsiders view as stale and inadequate.
The makeup of Fisher’s coaching staff is not a new sore spot at Florida State, but it has exploded into a crisis. Later, when questioned about the fan who told him to “Get new coaches, Fisher sort of explained his state of mind but didn’t exactly regret the exchange.
“Hey, just support,” Fisher said of the fan. “There’s no reason to be nasty. (I) Shouldn’t have said something; at the same time, defending players and people you’re with. I’m in charge of them. I love them like a father. Someone says something to your family, you take up for them.”
That may hold true in the middle of the season, but if changes aren’t made in another couple months, Fisher’s plea for support will feel like screaming into the void.