The best moment for the Florida State football program in the last calendar year was the hiring of Willie Taggart.
The second best moment was beating Florida for the umpteenth straight time.
The third best moment came on Monday night. When Jalen Ramsey let the world know just what he thought of Tim Brewster's Twitter feed.
I'll be honest. I don't have any sort of relationship with Ramsey at all. During his three years here, he was sometimes surly, always brash, and never really seemed interested in engaging with the media (which is most definitely his right). He doesn't suffer fools. At all. And on a college football beat, there are plenty of those to suffer -- present company most certainly included.
So we never really got to know Jalen all that well. Which is fine. He wasn't here to make friends. He was here to win football games and track meets. And he did plenty of both while in Tallahassee.
But while I really enjoy watching him play football -- he's one of the best cornerbacks I've ever seen -- that's where the relationship ended.
Until Monday night. Now he's one of my all-time favorite Seminoles. And I mean that sincerely.
In case you missed it, here's a quick recap:
Brewster, who was the recruiting coordinator at FSU before leaving with Jimbo Fisher for Texas A&M, tweeted out a graphic Monday evening that had a number of former FSU defensive backs in the image.
It then had Fisher in the middle. The picture was headlined, "Fisher's defensive backs." And it had the dollar amount of $8,426,868 underneath. That represented the average NFL earnings of the eight defensive backs in the picture -- seven of whom went to Florida State.
Brewster's tweet read: "DB Alert. Nothing but real #Facts!! Come get some truth."
There were eight players in the image. Seven played at Florida State. Six were a part of the 2013 national championship team and the other, Xavier Rhodes, is an All-Pro and one of the best in the sport.
And yet they were being used as a recruiting ploy for Texas A&M?
Jalen saw this.
Jalen wasn't happy.
You probably weren't, either.
Jalen let his feelings be known immediately.
Ramsey's tweet was "liked" over 20,000 times. And counting.
If Jalen Ramsey wasn't already on your list of all-time favorite Seminoles, he almost certainly shot to the top after you saw this.
Not because it's a shot at Jimbo. Why would Fisher have taught him one DB technique? He's the head coach and he works with quarterbacks.
But because of how ludicrous it is that Brewster is selling Florida State alums as a reason to go to Texas A&M.
Ramsey was born with special gifts. He also worked his butt off for years. He helped FSU win two ACC championships, a national championship and is well on his way -- if he stays healthy -- to wearing one of those ugly jackets in Canton as well.
He didn't do all of that so some assistant coach at a never-was football program could tout his accomplishments for a school he would have never dreamed of attending.
Which is why his next tweet, which was sent directly at Brewster, was the one I truly enjoyed.
This tweet is perfect.
It shows proper respect for Brewster. But it gets to the heart of the matter.
Calling Jalen Ramsey, Ronald Darby, Xavier Rhodes, Terrence Brooks, Marquez White, P.J. Williams and Lamarcus Joyner "Fisher's defensive backs," implies Fisher made them who they are. Sure, he recruited them. He signed them (though Jeremy Pruitt is a bigger reason Ramsey wound up in Tallahassee).
Fisher deserves credit for that. Absolutely.
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But the poster, as Ramsey called it, makes it seem like they were under his tutelage. He's the reason they all became millionaires.
Not quite.
And yet that's what Brewster is selling.
Come to Texas A&M, and you can be the next Lamarcus Joyner or Ronald Darby.
Except you'd have to live in dusty old College Station and play for a program that hasn't won a national title since Bobby Bowden was 9 years old. So, you know, a little different college experience.
What seemed to bother Ramsey most about that Brewster tweet is what I'm sure bothered most of you about it.
Those are Florida State's players. You don't get to co-opt them for a recruiting pitch for another school. They're Seminoles. They're not Aggies. Most of them don't even know what an Aggie is. I'm not sure I do either.
And, at least judging by Ramsey's reaction -- and the many retweets by other former FSU players -- they don't want Fisher to take the credit for their success. He was a fine head coach, sure. But he wasn't a defensive backs coach. So don't pretend he was the reason they've made the money they've made.
The lone exception could be Rhodes, since Fisher was the one who convinced him to switch from wide receiver to defensive back. But even then, it was Rhodes who put in the work.
The message to Jimbo Fisher and Tim Brewster is this: Sell your own school. Promote your own history. I know you might have to go back to 1939, but I'm sure there are some grainy, black-and-white pictures of defensive backs from the Texas A&M glory days that you can tweet out, right?
There has to be some archival footage of that magical season. I know it was before color television and integration, but show some pride in that memorable Aggie team from the pre-World War II days. Go to the basement of the College Station Gazette and dig up some old clippings.
I'm sure those newspaper articles will resonate with the kids!
In the grand scheme of things, was Brewster's graphic a big deal?
Of course not.
He's not loyal to Florida State. He's loyal to the paycheck. Just like most of us. And he's trying his best to sell Texas A&M. And since he apparently can't use his current school's own recent history, he decided to borrow some of Florida State's.
Not cool. But not the end of the world.
What was cool, what was so refreshing, what genuinely made my night, is that one of those players wasn't having it. He was angry about it. And he made sure his hundreds of thousands of followers knew he wasn't having it.
His tweets even showed up on Deadspin and other national media outlets. Even non-Florida State fans recognized -- and appreciated -- Ramsey's reaction for what it was: A player sticking up for himself and his school.
Jimbo Fisher isn't a Seminole anymore.
Tim Brewster only was for a few years.
But as Monday night illuminated oh so clearly, Jalen Ramsey will always be a Seminole.
This is his university. His football program. And he does not, under any circumstances, want to be used as a recruiting ploy for anyone other than Florida State.
That's the real truth.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council
