We should just cancel
UF vs. FSU to focus on the Florida rivalry that’s really exciting: UCF vs. USF, writes Mike Bianchi.
TALLAHASSEE — Due to lack of interest, can we please just cancel the Florida-Florida State game?
Seriously, haven’t we suffered enough bad football?
After watching FSU lose yet again at home 31-28 to a mediocre Louisville team Saturday and as we await the Gators’ expected annihilation at the hands of Georgia next week, let’s just go ahead and cancel UF-FSU so we can focus on the only in-state rivalry that matters this season: UCF versus USF. How embarrassing is it that the two most exciting teams and exciting offenses in the state this year belong to the Knights and the Bulls — two non-Power 5 teams who fill their rosters with two- and three-star recruits that the Gators and the Seminoles turn up their noses at?
How can this be? How can the two most prestigious football-playing public universities in one of the most fertile recruiting hotbeds in the country be absolutely pathetic on offense? This, my fellow Floridians, is both inexplicable and unacceptable. We grew up during the
high-flying days of Bowden and Spurrier, but now these two mundane teams are playing like they’re coached by Curley Hallman and Derek Dooley.
What in the name of Mickey Andrews has happened to a Seminoles’ defense that was supposed to be dominant and dynamic this season? Instead, the Seminoles once again on Saturday allowed an opponent to drive down the field and win the game in the final seconds.
Louisville recovered a fumble by FSU freshman QB James Blackman then drove 59 yards in eight plays before Blanton Creque hit the gamewinning 34-yard field goal with five seconds left.
Blackman and FSU’s struggling offense did manage 28 points, but don’t kid yourself. This is the same Louisville defense that yielded 555
yards and 45 points in last week’s embarrassing 45-42 loss to Boston College.
Florida State has too much talent and too many four- and five-star recruits to be 0-3 at home and 2-4 overall — the worst record after six games since 2009 (the year Bobby Bowden got shoved out the door).
Question: Of all the four- and five-star recruits on FSU’s roster, why didn’t the Seminoles seriously recruit Louisville’s Heisman-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson out of Boynton Beach High School?
Last year, Jackson ran for four touchdowns and threw for another during Louisville’s 63-20 blowout of the Seminoles. This time, he ONLY ran for 178 yards and a touchdown and threw for another 156 yards and a touchdown. And, to think, he was projected as a wide receiver by FSU recruiters — the worst case of personnel evaluation since the dunderhead at Decca Records rejected the Beatles and told them, “Guitar groups are on the way out.”
Obviously, FSU fans are getting frustrated — and so is FSU coach Jimbo Fisher, evidenced by the one obnoxious heckler whom Fisher challenged to a fight as he walked off the field.
As the fan yelled, “New coaches! New coaches!” an angry Fisher challenged the “punk” to come down onto the field. When asked about the incident afterward, Fisher said,
“There’s no reason [for fans] to be nasty, but I shouldn’t have said anything.
At the same time I was defending my players. … I’m in charge of them. I love them like a father. When they say something to your family, you take up for them.”
Hey, at least the heckler showed up on a day when there were thousands upon thousands of empty seats at Doak for the game against Louisville. This was supposed to be one of the marquee games of the year in the ACC, but lacked so much interest it was relegated to the noon time slot — right along with Purdue-Rutgers, Texas Tech-Iowa State, DukePittsburgh and all of the other noon games featuring unranked teams.
The scalpers took a bath on this one, evidenced by the dozens of people trying to unload tickets an hour before the game. One scalper had what appeared to be about 20 tickets in his hand when I asked him, “How much for one?” He replied with a laugh, “How much you got?”
Yes, it was a day of angry fans and apathetic ones, which is what happens when the bottom unexpectedly falls out of a season that was supposed to be so special.
We saw it a few years ago at Florida when Will Muschamp followed up an 11-win season by going 4-8. Now Fisher is presiding over an FSU program that started the year ranked No. 3 in the country but now is in jeopardy of not going to a bowl game for the first time in 35 years.
Sadly, there’s a real possibility that the FSUUF game might be to see who gets bowl eligible. Not to worry. Let us all bow down before the gridiron gods and thank them for UCF versus USF.