“We’re terrible!”
That was what my best friend Dan yelled at the end of the third quarter in FSU’s season opener against Clemson. For the fourth year in a row, the Noles opened up with a game on Monday night. And for the third time in four years, the Noles took a loss.
"We can’t run the ball! We can’t throw the ball! Drew Weatherford has no arm!” In Dan’s fit of rage towards his alma mater, he nail two problems Florida State would encounter for the rest of the year. He left one out (don't worry—we’ll get to that later).
The first is FSU’s inability to run the ball. This year the Seminole offense averaged just under 100 yards of rushing per game. Run blocking ranged from very poor to atrocious. Assignments were missed regularly. The Seminoles could not move fast enough to lead running backs on pulling assignments to the outside, nor could they pick up run blitzes on any consistent basis. This is due to the linemen having been overweight under the previous line coach.
Progress has been made throughout the course of the year. Yet the progress would need to be measured in baby steps to accurately evaluate it.
At one point during the Boston College game, Atone Smith took the handoff in the backfield and was greeted by the Eagles' left defensive end. The reason was because senior right tackle Shannon Boatman did not lay a hand on him. In fact, Boatman turned to the inside looking to block, but didn't lay a hand on anyone there either. Kirk Herbstreit actually said: “Wow. Looks like Boatman completely missed his assignment there. You’ve got to expect more out of your senior linemen.”
This was not atypical for our front five. I do not know if it was poor communication or poor technique. Heck, they may just be dumb people. Either way, in addition to the lack of physical strength and speed, FSU’s offensive line did not grasp the type of schemes first year coach (and highly regarded) Rick Tricket uses.
The second problem was FSU’s inability to consistently throw the ball down field. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that if a team cannot run the ball, they cannot successfully pass the ball. Sure, slants or jump balls will have a chance. There are always more consistent plays than others. But even with receivers who could make plays, Drew Weatherford was incapable of getting the ball to them.
Part of the reason was because playaction fakes did not cause the linebackers or safeties to bite. Why would they? Their front four is stopping the run. That leaves six or seven people left to cover anywhere between two to four receivers.
One downfall of this is that when we got to the red zone, our offense perpetually stalled. The defense did not have to respect the run and they had less field to cover. Our place kicker had a great season this year because of this trend.
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Even changes in the offense did not spur it to be better. When Xavier Lee was placed into the Alabama game, many a Nole fan were jumping for joy. “X-Savior!” They shouted. I even wrote an article about being cautiously optimistic.
Turns out Lee is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He changed plays (against his coaches wishes), forgot formations, and had a propensity to throw the ball to the same receiver, Gregg Carr #89.
He did not care what down it was. He did not care where we were at on the field. It actually worked in the red zone. It was one of two things he did better than Weatherford.
Lee had more athletic ability than Weatherford, but he didn't know how to manage the game. Unfortunately for Lee, that is all Fisher’s offense requires of the QB. It is unfortunate for Carr as well, because if Lee would not have gotten suspended, Carr would have had a lot more touchdowns. My friend Givens jokes, “You know Carr was wishing Lee went to more classes. He was determined to put 89 in the league.”
The other thing Lee could do well was run. His ability to scramble gave the offense just enough of a rushing threat to keep the defense honest. Regrettably, he was also good at not managing the game or making the right plays (see the aforementioned tendency above). Weatherford managed a game far better.
How can that be? Weatherford only threw one pick all year. He managed it well. He is not great and makes his reads late. But ohe offensive woes were not his fault.
He did not have control over the running game. He could not make blocks for the running backs. Nor could he play defense.
Which leads me to FSU’s last problem. In my previous article, I wrote about a growing problem with our defense: the secondary could not cover the deep ball.
It went undetected at the beginning of the season. It was exposed greatly for the first time at the end of the Miami game. The Canes, who are not bowl eligible this year, marched down the field with three minutes left to play by putting the ball in the air.
Our corners and safeties blew coverage after coverage. Corners were beat while literally standing flat footed. If you want to see a great example, look at the tape of the FSU-UF game. Michael Ray Garvin plays twelve yards off of Bubba Caldwell with 8:20 left in the 4th quarter. Caldwell ran a go route. Garvin stood there, maybe back peddled one step, and watched as Caldwell raced past him. Then Garvin turn and tried to play catch up.
A twelve yard cushion and he got beat deep on a route that was a straight sprint. Ironically enough, Garvin is an All-American in track. I am not making this up. No one can make this up. Our coverage problems are not due to talent. It is due to coaching.
His fellow NJ native, Myron Rolle, who could get a pass because he is only a sophomore, is not turning out to be the All-American he was touted to be. A five star recruit from NJ who never played safety in high school now plays safety for us. Either he is not fast or he is afraid to hit. I am leaning toward the latter, but I am not ruling out both.
These are the problems we faced this season. So what is the answer? We were a better team than we were last year by one win in the regular season.
It is possible to finish with the worst record since…wait for it…last year. No doubt our schedule was one of the hardest in the nation. We had five home games with a season opener at Clemson, and three of four games away in November without a bye week where we played at BC, at VT, and at UF.
That said, a difficult schedule does not excuse the last seven years. Since 2000, we have lost more games than we had in the last two decades before that.
What changed after 2000? Mark Richt left for the head coaching job at Georgia. He was our offensive coordinator and our quarterbacks coach.
His departure exposed the nature of program. Some time in the 90’s, Bowden gave the reigns of the program over to the assistants. So if there are bad assistants then there is a bad team. From the time his son came in as OC in 2001 until this year, there has not been any improvement in the level of play. It had been a steady decline.
Now, Fisher is here and Trickett is here. Both have caused turn around on the offensive side. But it has been slow. It will be another full season and possibly two before we see FSU finish in the top ten again. It takes time to change the mentality and type of play left by the previous staff.
There have been two people who have stayed on staff despite the mass changes in the past eight years—Bobby Bowden and Mickey Andrews. We have a head coach who is not involved. Therefore, we have one less coach game planning for that week’s game, and one less actually coaching on the sideline.
Why do I mention Andrews? Because he is the defensive coordinator and the secondary coach (it all makes since now). Anytime we face an offense that does not line up in a traditional formation, we struggle.
Wake Forest has given us fits for years, even before their run as ACC champs last year. They run a misdirection offense designed around traps and counters. Three years ago, UVA whipped us because they had a mobile quarterback who could break contain. That is the same reason Joe Hamilton and Reggie Ball gave us problems whenever we played GT.
Now VT has Tyrod Taylor, and we are looking at more trouble. And take a guess whether or not if UF has a unique offense. The offensive game is evolving, but FSU’s defense is not. In many ways, the program is not.
“Except for the Miami game, we lost the games I thought we were going to,” my brother commented the day after the UF game. There is hope for the future, but until it arrives, I guess we have to take the good with the bad.
Or maybe we have to take the good coaching with the bad coaching. I just wish the bad coaching would leave.
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8 months ago
I would like to email this article to others...how do I do that?
8 months ago
Excellent, absolutely on target. Wish all Nole fans would read this.
8 months ago
The only thing I would add from a non-FSU fan's perspective.
This probably has something to do with the coaching, but FSU doesn't have enough talent anymore to win on talent alone, or to say that the gap in talent is certainly far less than it was in the past.
There was a time where the backups on FSU were better than the starters elsewhere. After awhile, these players decided to be the starters elsewhere
In your assessment, you argued that the OL wasn't good enough, the QB wasn't good enough, and the secondary wasn't good enough.
That is 10 out of 22 starters. How can any team expect to win with a situation like that.
8 months ago
You cannot attribute missing assignments to overweight linemen.
You either know the play or you don't.
If any of you guys would like to, you can check out my article, which discusses how leadership is the one thing Florida State really lacks, and how leadership would solve most of their problems.
True leaders would motivate the offensive line to learn the plays.
True leaders would motivate the receivers to learn how to block downfield.
True leaders would motivate everyone to be the best that they can be.
It's not the coaches, people. It's lack of true leaders.
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