Orange and Blue Hue » The Sorry State of FSU Football

The Sorry State of FSU Football

Now accepting walkons Written by a sad soul on Warchant, the FSU message board:

Subject: Why are we here?

“Either we are the true FSU diehards, or just masochists. The number of times we’ve been kicked in the stomach as FSU fans the last couple years is unbelieveable. I mean it’s hard to even comprehend. What do we have, 8 scholarship OL from the last FOUR recruiting classes combined? Does our #3 ranked ‘06 class even crack the top 30 anymore?? Who is our best player? Do we have anybody left on our team that strikes fear in an opponent? Do we have any depth whatsoever? How about leadership? Or better yet, leadership from the coaching staff? This is beyond asinine.”

And here is where “nole96″ cranks his lament into overdrive.

“I wouldn’t wish what we’ve had to go through on our most hated rivals. I can’t even remember the last truly positive thing that happened to FSU football. I keep thinking we hit rock bottom, then we sink deeper. What will it be next? And will it be tomorrow?”

Indeed. What will tomorrow bring for what is our most hated rival? At the rate things are going… nothing good.

A quick look back on what brought the ‘Noles to this point:

1. Back to back 7-6 seasons
2. Jeff Bowden finally resigns, taking a hefty buyout in return for taking his claws off the toothless ‘Nole offense
3. An entire class has come and gone at FSU without ever beating the Gators (in fact, losing by a combined total of 120-46)
4. No QB on the roster can beat out Drew Weatherford for the starting job — which says a lot about how poor those players must be
5. An academics scandal which left 35 players suspended for the Music City Bowl (a loss, by the way) as well as the first three games of the ‘08 season.
6. Bowden changes the schedule, replacing real teams with cupcakes, to accommodate his weakened team; embarasses FSU fans
7. One of FSU’s very few offensive threats, WR/TB Preston Parker, is arrested for marijuana and concealed gun charges over the summer
8. Starting linebacker Marcus Ball left the team
9. Daron Rose, a starter on the offensive line, is out for the 2008 season due to academic ineligibility (he was one of the players suspended for cheating)

These things haven’t been, and won’t be, swept under the rug this time. Larry Vettel wrote: “Jimbo Fisher might want to sneak into the administrative offices at Florida State University and destroy the documents binding him to the Seminoles for the foreseeable future.” It might not be a bad move for Jimbo, who surely didn’t fully appreciate what he was signing on for when he agreed to become FSU’s “head coach in waiting,” an awkward situation for all involved.

But to answer “nole96″ in his plaintive missive, above: no, you haven’t hit rock bottom. Things will get worse before they get better. Possibly much worse. Why? The fallout from the academics scandal hasn’t even begun to be felt by this football program. NCAA sanctions, probably including a reduction of scholarships, are almost certainly coming, and a probationary period is all but guaranteed.

If you’re an elite football recruit, would you seriously consider FSU?

The ‘Noles have a long and tough road ahead, especially considering that Bowden lingers on in the head coaching office. Make no mistake about it: the head coach’s forgiving ways, lackadaisical leadership and total disregard for instilling discipline in the young men in his charge has brought FSU football to this point. Accountability? Don’t make me laugh: after he started receiving barbed questions about the academics scandal, Bowden said “It’s not like I had anything to do with this,” passing the buck off to FSU’s administration. Bowden believes that if he just sits quietly in his office, pumps hands at booster meetings, watches practices and paces the sideline at football games, he has no responsibility to make sure the kids in his care are doing the right thing both on and off the field.

Don’t be fooled by St. Bobby’s charm: this is a man who puts himself above the well-being of his employer, the fans who pay his salary, and his team. This is a man who would let one of his players off the hook for attempted murder, if it were up to him. This is a man who despite spending his Sundays preaching the virtues of the Lord, is as morally bankrupt as they come as a football coach. We don’t have to look back too far in time, do we, to remember Bowden chuckling about the late hits on Danny Wuerffel, cracking that “We might keep hitting until the echo of the whistle rather than the whistle itself”? And it doesn’t take a long memory to recall how defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews coached up his players to lay savage, injury-causing hits on their opponents.

They say there’s no honor among thieves. And at the end of the day, that’s exactly what Bowden and his cronies are: thieves. They’ve stolen the heart of their once proud football program; more importantly, they’ve stolen the children of trusting families who believed the coaches when they said they’d take care of their kids as if they were their own.

FSU football is most definitely in awful condition. The question isn’t whether Florida will beat them at Ron Zook Field this year. The question is, by how many touchdowns will they win? I’ll put the over/under at 4.

30 Comments so far
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Great work Pilot, nothing better to start the day than a little FSU schadenfreude.

And to make the day a bit sweeter, this just off of ESPN……

Starting Seminoles left tackle Rose ruled ineligible

Florida State is the best football program in Florida and just behind them is South Florida.

I want proof, John. Unmistakeably, indisputably true proof.

If you can’t tell us why, I’m perfectly fine with calling you “Dr. Boatright, Resident Blabbermouth”

Also, I hate to say it, but Kentucky’s headed for another down year. Ramel and Joe, unquestioned team leaders, are graduating. I like Liggins but needs another big guy to give the rock to.

Josh Harrellson? Pathetic. With the UK brand name, I wanted to see a younger, more athletic, and more highly touted center than him. Otherwise, teams are just going to play zone on you guys all the time.

Byt the way, Dr. Boatright, Resident Blabbermouth, you forgot the Miami Hurricanes.

Please do not feed the troll. Thank you.

This is a man who would let one of his players off the hook for attempted murder, if it were up to him…

If I recall correctly…

Didn’t Bobby do a character testimony for a kid that raped and beat a Tally woman within inches of her life while on a recruiting visit to FSU?

Point taken, GP.

The Miami Hurricans are a bunch of thugs and the Florida Gators are not too far behind.

Vince,

Shouldn’t you be studying for finals instead of spending all your time online? My classes are all over for the semester! Just turned in my grades!

My finals are done. Take that.

“Take that.” You finishing your finals is somehow supposed to impress me? Are you serious? I can’t believe I actually come here and argue with 19 year olds. I really need to stop but it is too much fun! GO CATS!

I didn’t know you were a fan of the Western Carolina Catamounts.

Scratch that. As a Philly native, you root for the Villanova Wildcats.

Or maybe you’re the Cincinnatti Bearcats type. Can’t argue with the Big O or Kenyon Martin now, can you?

Well, when a thread on FSU takes a bluegrass turn, it’s hard to ignore the fact that O&B Hue has been completely infiltrated by our “loyal” Kentucky trolls.

What say you, fine readers? Boatright and Daniel have been given plenty of chances. I’m not the kind of person that likes banning anyone regardless of their particular rooting interest but in my view these two have really lowered the quality of conversation here, and they consistently derail comment threads.

I could make it a poll vote, I suppose.

I’m pretty close to banning both simply due to the worthless nature of their input here. But I’m all ears. If someone has a different take, let me hear it. They’re unlikely to change their ways so we either have to get rid of them or “suffer the fools gladly.”

You’ve been far too forbearing. Toss ‘em.

definitely get rid of both

Ax ‘em. If anything, I want Noles or Dawgs fans playing the troll. Having fans who are much more invested in their UF hatred only makes it more fun.

Sorry guys, but you belong on A Sea of Blue, where the cast and crew are much more your type.

If anything, you’ll be lauded as role models for being so dedicated to Kentucky.

One last parting shot:

With another year at UK, Patrick Patterson will be a late 1st rounder in the NBA.

With two years, he’ll go in the second and struggle for playing time.

With another three, he’s undrafted and playing in Europe.

I wouldn’t ban them - they’d just rejoin under aliases. They are wannabes. It happens when you lose for so long in all sports but one - and then that last stronghold begins to fade.

They are only hanging around here because we respond to them to often. If you want to get rid of them, just ignore their stupid comments.

Oh, I can get rid of them for good, all right. Or at least make it terribly difficult for them to return. And if they did manage to comment under such a scenario, I’d delete them.

All along I have taken their taunting as a sign of respect. And you can hardly blame ‘em for lashing out… football and basketball have combined for 28 straight victories over the Cats compared to only one for them. (34 to 2 if you count their lone victory in 1985.) But it has grown tiresome to me to see all of these threads start to look alike. It’s not what I intended when I started this site two years ago.

Come on guys just having fun. If I did not respect the Florida program I would not be here. So here I am going to bring something to the table and I want honest opinions and no stupid lame “Kentucky sucks” comments. Billy Gillispie has received a verbal commitment from an 8th grader. There are a lot of mixed feelings here in Kentucky about getting commitment from someone so young. Do you all think this is too young? or is this the way of the future?

Boatright, I’m giving you ONE last chance. I’m fine with spirited discussion and I’m even fine with some anti-Florida vitriol but you HAVE TO PROVIDE REAL COMMENTARY here other than “Florida sucks”. No one here wants to read it and it stopped being funny after the 20th time.

Again, to make myself clear, you’d better have a real position in our discussions and contribute something of merit — not just annoyance. If you don’t can’t do that, you’re gone. The same goes for Daniel.

Well John, I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one trying to provide meaningful discussion around here.

Anyhoo, I think it’s too early. 13 and 14-year olds should concern themselves with school dances, not the Big Dance. Now, I know Calathes got a commitment from Billy D as a high school sophomore, but he doesn’t give out too many of those; to say nothing of Calathes’ not switching programs over the next two years.

I fear of a future where UK could get a commitment from the womb, where parents could practically sculpt the lives of their own children. With technology available to pick a child’s gender, hair color, and so forth, it’s a terrifying prospect.

Besides, what if Mike suffered a career-ending injury in high school? If the school tried to yank the scholarship, there might be a lawsuit. They’d end up having to give a free education to the kid without one minute on a court.

No, juniors at best. Stick to seniors, people!

Unfortunately, John, this is a discussion of the state of FSU football…

Not a thread on BG’s commitment from pre-schoolers…

Perhaps you head should over to Sea of Blue to discuss Gillespie’s fascination with children…

I say flush ‘em, Fergs…

Dump those IP’s…

I almost put up in my first comment “I wonder how long before the UK guys come on here and start….” I see it didn’t take long. There’s a post about FSU football and it turns into basketball. The basketball banter is fun, but if you can’t post anything without it turning into a basketball conversation….I say boot’em.

I think a better poll would be how many comments you get on a thread without me and ole John, doesn’t look like much. Face it gatorpileofit, your blog, like your team, ain’t much. So I’ll dismiss myself, it has gotten boring arguing with a bunch of chumps who think making the NIT would turn UK fans jealous of their program, or getting beaten down by a big ten school in football is something to celebrate. Just like John said, you all should just save the time and effort and put each other on an e-mail list. So so long and remember, you might have won back-to-back championships, but we beat you last, we’ve beat you more and we will always be the more recognized program, and the only reason you are half way decent? You have a coach who broke his teeth at Kentucky. Oh and the Patterson comment from Vince Gagonabigdingo, you talking about the same Patterson who turned down your glorified beach resort for the bluegrass state? hah, see you in lexington chumpzillas.

It is time for Florida State to move on from Bowden before they turn into another Penn State. They need to bring in another big name coach to get things rolling again. I’m sure that is not what you all want but it is what they need. Some people have even suggested Spurrier. Wonder if that would ever happen and if it did how would the Gator faithful take it? Samething happend with us when Pitino took the Louisville job. Now they hate him.

Daniel, we’re a little blog with about 500 readers per day in the offseason and about 1000 per day in football/basketball season. Doing the math, that’s about 15,000/30,000 per month. Not huge by any stretch especially compared to Kentucky blog “A Sea of Blue” which is a far better blog than we can ever hope to be, but we are perfectly comfortable with the amount of participation and readership we have. There are blogs with far less and far more. Blog traffic is not an e-penis competition for us.

I’d say I’m sorry to see you go but I guess I’m not, really. The quality of conversation has really diminished since you arrived and your departure is probably best for all parties. I wish you the best of luck in the future and good luck to your ‘Cats. They are going to need it when they face the mighty Gators.

It’s pathetic to watch him on his weekly show, he doesn’t know the players or the plays that happen. Ole Bobby is just trying to wait out Paterno but at least Joe is coaching. I don’t think Spurrier would consider FSU, too close to UF and with him being an alum it might be too much for the ‘ball coach.

Pilot,

That has to suck to ask someone to leave, but I applaud the effot. The addition of Vince has been great, he writes great pieces on the site. As for the few of us who come on here and comment, I look forward to what hippy, ski, and the others bring to the table. Thanks for a very entertaining site.

I remember during the FSU glory days - it was the only game that I was fearful the Gators would lose. Of course we lost others, but I always felt pretty confident before all other games.

It’s strange to me to feel so confident going into FSU week.

It’s a strange world we live in, where I worry more about the UF-GA game then the UF-FSU game.

I don’t think the OBC would ever take the FSU job… but it is one of the few he could take that would turn love into hate.

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