On Wednesday, we took a look back at Florida State's fall from the top of the college football mountaintop to a point where it is now being embarrassed regularly by its main rivals.
In this edition of our Warchant Roundtable, our panel discusses where things seem to be heading under first-year head coach Mike Norvell, how long it's going to take to get the program back on track and more.
Our Roundtable consists of Warchant founder and administrator Gene Williams, managing editor Ira Schoffel, senior writer Corey Clark and director of digital media Aslan Hajivandi.
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Q: As discussed in the earlier piece, a lot of things had to go wrong for FSU to fall so far so fast. In your opinion, where does the biggest blame go? Jimbo Fisher for losing his focus? The administration for poor oversight and making a bad hire? Willie Taggart for his poor two-year tenure? All of the above is not an option!
GENE: All of the above! That may not be an option, but it’s the reality.
OK, if we must place the blame on just one factor, I’ll lay it at the feet of Jimbo Fisher. The program was on the top of the college football world and had everything set up for an extended run of dominance when he checked out. Florida State was way out in front of its rivals, and it looked like there was no end in sight. Going into the 2015 season, the Seminoles were coming off a second straight undefeated regular season, had just wrapped up the nation's No. 3 recruiting class, and were 7-1 vs. Florida, 7-0 vs. Miami and 4-1 vs. Clemson.
Whether it was because of difficulties in his personal life, and/or disputes with Florida State’s administration, Fisher turned into a shell of his former coaching self. The once detailed-oriented, tireless head coach made awful choices in assistant coaching hires, got lazy in recruiting, let discipline slide, and completely ignored academics. He let a tremendous advantage disintegrate in a short period of time. The dereliction of his duties was inexcusable.
All that being said, I have to make it very clear that Willie Taggart was a horrible rush hire. After being jilted by Fisher, there was an emotional need for healing, and Taggart’s upbeat “Go Seminoles” personality filled that need in the short term. But the administration botched the situation by not doing proper due diligence before making the hire. While I still believe that Taggart is a below-average coach, had the core of his from Oregon staff joined him in Tallahassee (mainly Mario Cristobal and Jim Leavitt), it might have played out differently. His tenure at FSU exposed that fact that he is disorganized and incapable of actual hands-on coaching. That said, he might have been somewhat serviceable if he had top-notch assistants and support staff doing the heavy lifting.
COREY: I'm also going with, "All of the above!" I do what I want. And I answer how I want to answer. I'm the lead writer for Warchant.com for crying out loud! I'm running this show. ... But if you're going to make me pick, well, I'll agree with Gene that the obvious choice is Jimbo Fisher. He's the reason a Willie Taggart (and then a Mike Norvell) had to be hired in the first place. If Fisher could have found some peace at Florida State, if he could have sustained and maintained a program like Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney have done, then FSU would still be one of the top programs in America. He had this thing humming. He's a good coach. Obviously. And he is a fierce competitor. And yet somehow, some way, for some reason, it slipped.
It was apparent he wanted out, it was apparent he wasn't happy (even when things went well, he wasn't happy), and maybe even he saw the writing on the wall from the last few classes he had brought in. But his program had clearly started slipping. Unlike Saban's. Unlike Swinney's. He couldn't maintain. And then he bounced. And FSU was left to make a rushed hire.
I'll always wonder what heights this program would have reached if an engaged Jimbo Fisher (circa 2010-2014) would have stayed engaged and stayed elite. Alas, it started to slide. And instead of fixing it, he left. And the program hasn't stopped sliding since.
ASLAN: We really need to examine this Jimbo-mailed-it-in timeline. He won the 2016 Orange Bowl and followed it up by signing Cam Akers, Marvin Wilson, Hamsah Nasirildeen, Tamorrion Terry and the No. 5 class in the nation. Then that spring or summer, he mentioned to Corey that he was a complete monster to be around during that spring because he was pushing this team so hard in preparation for Alabama.
Fast-forward to that game in Atlanta, and FSU was the only team that had a lead on Alabama that whole year until the Iron Bowl. From that night until the end of November wasn’t even 90 days. Now, the whole promissory notes/Showtime 2016 stuff … it's never discussed outside of the hardcore FSU ecosystem because it didn’t affect them in nearly upending the eventual national champs Clemson that year, going on to beat Florida for a fourth straight time, or winning a New Year's Six bowl.
Sure, 2013 Jimbo was no longer, I get it. And I didn’t have to work with him or for him, but you don’t let that walk. Who sweeps the state six of his eight seasons, winning 14 of 16, three conference titles, playoff trip, a national title (that should be in all caps) … all the while immediately following a legend? I can't speak to who was more right or more wrong, but for FSU's administration and Seminole Boosters to continually make Fisher have to pout and use leverage for all his aspirations, that was a misstep. And here we are.
IRA: I'm sure I'm going to surprise some people here, but I actually will go with the administration if I have to pick just one. That's certainly not to absolve Jimbo of anything. And since I'm the editor and get the last word before we click the "publish" button, allow me to retort to Aslan's timeline comment.
No one is suggesting that Jimbo mailed it in before 2017. We're just saying he was slipping. He was so consumed by things other than what he was getting paid $5 million a year to do that he lost his focus. You could see it in his coaching hires, his recruiting and the way he handled the players. By 2017, he definitely was checked out -- especially once he lost his quarterback and that Alabama game.
But for all of Jimbo's faults, I still think the buck stops with the administration. Their biggest mistake, in my mind, was not having a firm plan in place for what they would do when Fisher eventually left -- something he had been trying to do for two years. You can start by blaming athletics director Stan Wilcox for making a poor choice by zeroing in on Willie Taggart without really knowing what he was getting, but you also have to look at President John Thrasher and the Board of Trustees for not being more involved in the process. Wilcox had never hired a football coach before, and he certainly had never done it at a school like Florida State. You could make a case that head football coach is the single biggest hire a school like FSU can make, and the way the Seminoles handled that search was a monumental mistake. They're still paying the price today -- figuratively and literally.
