It doesn't seem like Jimbo Fisher has quite learned this lesson. Outside of one of the greatest seasons college football has ever seen, coach Fisher has had a knack for testing FSU fans' limits. Since his arrival, we have been tested with dramatic game after dramatic game. It's understandable when it is against ranked teams, but teams like Georgia Tech that are the definition of mediocre leaves us scratching our heads. Luckily for us, a great majority of these 4th quarter battles have ended in our favor. Now I get that it's college football and anything can happen, but it begs the question, what is it about Jimbo's teams that keep us past the edge of our seat? Is it game-planning? Is it just not taking the opponent seriously?
We all know what happened this past weekend. Georgia Tech's block, scoop, and score was one of the craziest plays in college football history. The play was a fluke, but it's not why we lost. We shouldn't have been in that position to begin with. We missed countless opportunities to put up six in the red zone.
Against a team that has given up 30+ points to every power 5 team it has played this year, we scored 16. Right off the bat we were served a touchdown on a silver platter after Josh Sweat tipped and intercepted a pass, setting us up on the Georgia Tech 19-yard line. We got three. Early in the second quarter we drove the ball down to their 10-yard line. We settled for three. We managed to not score a single point in the second half and after jumping out to a 16-0 lead, we gave up 22-straight.
Fans want to point at play-calling or the offensive line. To me it came down a variety of little things that centered around execution. Especially execution, or lack thereof, in the red zone and on third down. The Seminoles were 2 of 10 on third down Saturday night against the nation's 71st ranked defense.
The loss hurts, but it shines light on a bigger theme for Jimbo's Seminoles. That theme is that, for some reason, we like to run with scissors when we could just walk. We're not worried about the cats claws cause, it's a pretty kitty. We, "can handle a few sparks, Mom!"
Here's a look back at past games. Some we lost, most of them we won (we've only lost 12 since Jimbo became head coach in 2010). But the resounding theme in all of them is that we were far more talented and the game ended up closer than it should have been.
2011 (Jimbo's 2nd year):
- Loss at Wake Forest 35-30. After two straight losses to Oklahoma and at Clemson, coach Fisher held EJ Manuel out of the first half for an injury precaution. EJ came in in the second half to bring us back, but it was not enough. Wake Forest finished 6-7 that year.
- Loss vs Virginia 14-13. HOMECOMING. Jimbo and the team overlooked UVA. The Cavs lost the next game 38-0 to Virginia Tech and finished the season 8-5. Respectable play from Virginia, sure, but there's no way we should only come up with 3 second half points against that year's 47th ranked defense.
2012:
- Loss at NC State 17-16. We all know how much this one stung. After jumping out to a 16-0 lead, Jimbo's offense managed to not score a single second half point. Sound familiar?
- Win at Virginia Tech 28-22. If you remember, Rashad Greene caught the ball late in Blacksburg and out-ran the VT defense for six. It covered up the fact that we struggled against a sub-.500 team, scoring only 7 second half points before Greene's game-winner
- Win over Georgia Tech 21-15. Jimbo's first ACC Championship had us on the edge of our seats against a 6-6 team that was only there because UNC and Miami could not go for different reasons. Another 2nd half goose egg by the offense against the 65th scoring defense in the country almost cost us until Karlos Williams intercepted a pass for the win.
2013
- :)
2014 (Basically every game)
- at NC State we were down 21-3 to start the game.
- at Louisville Jameis threw three interceptions to start the game and dug us into a 21-0 hole.
- at Miami, down 23-7 with Miami as hot as it's been in years behind their freshman quarterback Brad Kayaa
- vs BC, in the second half we scored... a field goal. Three. With Jameis Winston, Dalvin Cook and Rashad Greene, arguably the three best to ever play their position for the 'Noles.
- vs UF with the same offense we found ourselves scoring just three points in the second half. This game, I'll admit, was against one of the best defenses in the nation, but against the barely-bowl-eligible Gators we found ourselves in a nail-biter.
You can see the trend with offensive collapses in the second half. In 2014, it was the opposite, we forced ourselves to climb back into the games. The battles with inferior competition alludes to what Sean wrote about, how we seem to overlook our opponents.
We've dismissed it because we have been winning. When you win, you notice the positives more than the negatives. Seminole fans have been spoiled by coach Fisher during his tenure, but there's something keeping us from taking the next step and it's that we continuously flirt with mediocrity. It's difficult to argue with an SEC fan that we belong in the national discussion when we are squeaking out wins over countless .500 teams that barely make it to bowl season. Jimbo consistently brings in top 5 recruiting classes flooded with the nations top talent, but we are missing something.
In the dynasty years we didn't have these problems. We used our athletic and physical advantages on our opponents by dominating them from the first snap. This happened in 2013, the team got the message. For some reason Jimbo has only been able to get his team to play like that for one year in his time as head coach, every other year we have played down to our competition level.
If you think that Jimbo isn't an "elite" coach you're wrong. 4 10-win seasons, 3 conference titles, 29 players drafted in three years (NCAA record), 3-straight quarterbacks taken in the first round (NCAA record), a 64-12 career record (0.842), 14-2 record against FSU's rivals (Clemson, UF, & Miami), an undefeated season (something UF has never done), a 29-game ACC win streak (record-tying), a Heisman Trophy winner, oh, and a National Championship. There's no way around it, we're extremely blessed to have him, but this team is capable of being something even greater. There's something holding this team back, and it's playing down to the competition of its opponents. It's the consistency and the mindset that he himself preaches. Once Jimbo figures out how to get this message instilled in his team, the 'Noles will reach the dominance it did in the '90s. Hopefully, it will not take an inexcusable loss like this one every so often to get that through their heads.
Stats acquired from ESPN.com
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