🏈 (FSU continued.) Finebaum: Florida State is not a destination job

[18Champs]

The finger-pointing has settled to a simmer in Tallahassee, but it's going to take several years of respectable finishes to put Florida State back in favor of the national media.

SEC Network host and ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum torched the Seminoles this week when asked where he'd place Texas and Florida State in the national hierarchy of programs behind Alabama, Clemson and other elites.

“I don’t think FSU is a (destination job)," Finebaum said on Thursday's David Glenn Show. "If you look at schools who have crashed and burned in recent years, FSU would be the poster child. And there’s a great debate on what happened, because it has not been every long. In fact, it’s only been two years since FSU entered the season No. 3 in the country about to play the biggest preseason game — what I mean by that — the biggest opening weekend game we’ve ever seen (vs. No. 1 Bama).

"I don’t know because I'm not down there whether the criticism is deserved on Jimbo Fisher. Willie Taggart to me is not the right coach. He has shown me absolutely nothing. From playing from national championships everywhere under Bobby and Jimbo, now they’re a program trying to get back to a bowl game.”

Finebaum didn't place all of last season's disaster on Taggart's shoulders, however. Fisher left the program barren in several areas and the Seminoles' new coach felt the brunt of it. Depth at quarterback and the along the offensive line lacked and FSU was in the middle of a talent development tailspin despite success in recruiting with one of the nation's most talented rosters overall.

"He left willingly, but I wonder if Jimbo Fisher's life at Florida State would be like this today,” Finebaum said. "Because the next year, which was last year, they were going to fall off a cliff. He was losing favor. He made a good decision (to leave).”

Earlier this year, Orlando radio host Mike Bianchi urged Finebaum not to bail on FSU's current regimejust yet.

"He didn't exactly take over a team that was in great," Bianchi told Finebaum. "I'm going to give Taggart enough time to at least get the right quarterback in there. I don't think anybody is ready to say Willie Taggart is not the right guy there."

The Seminoles struggled on offense last season en route to missing a bowl game, finishing 103rd nationally in total offense and 113th in scoring (21.9 points per game). Bianchi pointed to Taggart's offseason coaching hires and the need to have patience as reasons he can foresee improvements.

"Willie Taggart's reputation as some sort of offensive guru or genius was overstated, otherwise why would he have bailed out on calling the plays midway through the season,” Bianchi said. "Can you imagine Josh Heupel giving up the play-calling halfway through his first season at UCF? Or Dan Mullen? No.

"That doesn’t mean Taggart can’t recruit well and become a good head coach."

Finebaum: Florida State is not a destination job

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247sports.com

 

[TerryP]

Finebaum didn't place all of last season's disaster on Taggart's shoulders, however. Fisher left the program barren in several areas and the Seminoles' new coach felt the brunt of it. Depth at quarterback and the along the offensive line lacked and FSU was in the middle of a talent development tailspin despite success in recruiting with one of the nation's most talented rosters overall.

"He left willingly, but I wonder if Jimbo Fisher's life at Florida State would be like this today,” Finebaum said. "Because the next year, which was last year, they were going to fall off a cliff. He was losing favor. He made a good decision (to leave).”

Or pulled an Urban/Spurrier and decided to quit, run?

 

[TUSKtimes]

Or pulled an Urban/Spurrier and decided to quit, run?

Dude, you really don't like Jimbo. Tell you the truth he's a little hard to take for me as well. I wonder if my tolerance of him is better at College Station than Baton Rouge? It probably is, but that may just be my competitive dislike for the purple tigers.

 

[TerryP]

Dude, you really don't like Jimbo. Tell you the truth he's a little hard to take for me as well. I wonder if my tolerance of him is better at College Station than Baton Rouge? It probably is, but that may just be my competitive dislike for the purple tigers.

As an individual, there's nothing I can point to and say "I don't like him because of ___." I don't care for the way he speaks, but that's unrelated (other than I feel there are some TX folk that won't appreciate his cadence.)

When it comes to football, it's not that I don't like him, it's just I'm not impressed by him. While I consider him to be a better coach than Orgeron (and to a lot that's not a ringing endorsement) I don't feel that LSU would be any better off with him. They'd still be looking for a QB. His resume from LSU reads Mauck, Davey, Booty, and Russell. In other words, a string of guys like JPW in terms of talent (granted Davey and Russell had stronger arms.) I didn't see a lot of football IQ coming from the Bayou's QB position when he was there.

At FSU, who is his "go to" guy? Winston, right? And how much development did we see out of Winston when he was at FSU? None off the field, little on the field.

And in the end he left FSU in shambles—a comedic caricature of its former self.

What's left on his "pro's" column?

 

[TUSKtimes]

When it comes to football, it's not that I don't like him, it's just I'm not impressed by him. While I consider him to be a better coach than Ørgeron (and to a lot that's not a ringing endorsement) I don't feel that LSU would be any better off with him. They'd still be looking for a QB. His resume from LSU reads Mauck, Davey, Booty, and Russell. In other words, a string of guys like JPW in terms of talent (granted Davey and Russell had stronger arms.) I didn't see a lot of football IQ coming from the Bayou's QB position when he was there.

Was that a Jimbo problem or just a specific definition of what a Nick Saban QB looked like at LSU? Mauck once said of Saban that if it was 3rd and 5, Saban told him is to just focus on getting 6 years. G-Mac would tell anyone that any QB playing for Saban better check that ego at the door. What was Jimbo to do?

Now, at FSU, things changed. I wouldn't call his signal callers "game managers." More controlled gunslingers that passed more to set up their run game. Winston was a nut before, during and after his time at FSU. But Alabama fans have benefited mightily from Jimbo's teaching. Jake Coker, was down there long enough to get an FSU degree. He came to us with 2 years of eligibility and he was the best signal caller on the team, immediately. I thought the guy was well coached and ready to make his mark at Bama from day one. What happened to Coker was Lane Kiffin and what he wanted to run in 2014. When he went into the game vs Florida after Sims got nicked, he didn't miss a beat. Winning the title while Coker was living the dream in 2015 sealed his credentials for me.

 

[TerryP]

@TUSKtimes, note the word development when I was talking about his time at FSU. I don't consider it much of a stretch to say Gus is successful when he finds the right QB by transfer, and Jimbo found one through one Dameyune Craig (and that was a recruiting effort based largely along racial overtures, "Bama doesn't play black quarterbacks." And yet, in Winston's time there, did we see marked improvement from one year to another? If anything, we saw his sink deeper in his own little world/game.

Coker didn't win the starting job when he arrived in Tuscaloosa because of his struggles with the playbook. Blake got the nod, not so much because he was a better player, but because he had a deeper knowledge of what they were doing and he still struggled with the calls from sideline to huddle (hence the introduction of Blake's wrist band and simplified calls.)

We did see A LOT of improvement with Coker in the following season. His breakthrough came about three quarters of the way through the season when they were in a situation where he needed to be "that guy." He not only earned the trust of the fan base but also the coaching staff that weekend. Let's also not forget if it wasn't for AJ, Jake would have likely ended up in Tuscaloosa originally...one of those "not enough room" scenarios.

He may prove me wrong (Jimbo.) I was almost of the opinion I might be wrong on Les Miles because I had a very similar opinion of him when he took the LSU job. We realized exactly who he was starting in '12, I'd say.

 

[XXL TideFan]

FSU should hire Bobby back as an ambassador/fund raiser and build the facilities and hire the right coach after breaking ground.