Clark column: An FSU spring game that could be a sign of things to come

The difference was noticeable.

Last year's Garnet & Gold game, the first with Willie Taggart as head coach, saw almost 60,000 fans in the stands. It had a palpable energy. A buzz. Even more so than the 2013 edition starring Jameis Winston.

The Florida State fan base was head-over-heels in love with Willie Taggart, and the Seminoles showered him with affection from kickoff until the end, when he ran an entire circle around the stadium giving high-fives to fans.

This column isn't about the stark contrast between that afternoon and Saturday. I'm not writing about how the crowd was half as large. And how there was very little palpable anything in the stands.

Because, when it comes right down to it, when it's all said and done … who cares?

Programs aren't rebuilt on spring games and buzz and excitement and energy. We all found that out the hard way in 2018.

They're built on what we saw Saturday: An offense that can not only go fast and produce big plays, but that can block people AND line up correctly.

"It's a new year," quarterback James Blackman said. "It's a new us. We've just got to keep working and keep getting better. As long as we're getting better, and not getting worse, that's the goal."

A good one to have, honestly.

I don't care -- at all -- about how many people were in the stands. Neither should you. We saw how much that mattered last season. There's never been a spring game in Doak Campbell Stadium like the one we saw in 2018. And yet, when the season began, it didn't amount to (in my best Chris Farley voice) jack squat!

The momentum disappeared once Virginia Tech appeared on the other sideline. None of the excitement, buzz and energy mattered one single iota.

But what happened this Saturday did, in my opinion.

There was on-the-field stuff, not just in-the-stands stuff, that should legitimately carry over into September. That's a heck of a lot more important than Taggart doing a victory lap with adoring fans.

The honeymoon is over. We get that.

But the marriage isn't. And Kendal Briles' offense sure looked like a terrific therapist.

The offensive line, even without veterans Landon Dickerson and Cole Minshew, performed admirably in both the running game and the passing game. It kept all the quarterbacks pretty clean for the most part.