Clark: How to be angry and rational at same time about brutal loss
I'm not sure I've ever gone an entire post-game press conference without asking a single question. If I have, it was most certainly because of laziness.
So Saturday was a first for me. I didn't ask a question because, frankly, I didn't really care about any of the answers.
Willie Taggart can promise, like he did after Saturday's 36-31 loss to Boise State, that this thing is going to get turned around. He can say this is going to be a good football team, that it's going to learn how to win.
But they're just words. At this point, who really believes these players are going to learn how to win?
They had an 18-point lead at home, in suffocating heat, against a team from Idaho with a true freshman at quarterback, and still found a way to lose.
So do we really buy anyone's words at this point? On a macro level anyway?
Because here's the reality: In its last 26 games, Florida State is now 12-14. Those are the facts.
All the talk about how this team was different, how it was more together, how it held each other accountable and was going to be tougher … well, was it all talk?
When the going got tough on Saturday, when the Boise State Broncos (a team used to winning) started to come back, the Seminoles (a team used to losing) completely melted down. It panicked. It got rattled. And it never fought out of it.
So that was the main thing I was interested in on Saturday. There were schematic problems on both sides of the ball, of course. There were breakdowns -- just like in every other football game. And there were also plenty of positives as well (we'll get to some in a moment), but the main problem with this football team -- coaches, players, everyone -- is it doesn't know how to win. Not here anyway.
And what kind of questions can you ask about that? What kind of answers could Taggart or players give that would have you believing it will all get figured out?
Well, here are a couple of those responses if you're interested:
"We laid an egg in the second half." Taggart said. "One of the things that we need to get better at is finishing. We didn't do that today. … Our football team has got to learn how to finish. Our football team's got to learn how to win again. ... But one game will not define us. Our guys are going to bounce back. We're going to make (fans) proud of this football team."
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