Missed opportunities

[weownfsu]

Our offensive skill positions are a mess next year unless Coley takes a giant leap forward and Rashawn Scott is healthy and back to form. Everybody else is decent at best. RB is trouble.

 

[UMFarArcher]

Gotta love hindsight.

Blame the coaches for EVERYTHING.

Golden threw that screen pass at UL. He also fumbled at Neb in a important moment.

Only game I'll listen to you all about coaching failing is GT.

Why was Shannon ever fired then? He was the one who routinely threw into triple coverage. He was the one who was out of position and had to tackle someone by their hand warmers. What about Coker? What about all of those times he let Kyle Wright get sacked? Or when he ducked under a wide open pass?

Nope Shannon was fired because we were in a downward spiral. His recruiting classes sucked and he's was a horrible coach. FSU pounded us in Shannon final season then he goes and takes a L to USF lol

I'll never forget him and his coordinators arguing on the sidelines. How about continuously kicking to CJ Spiller. Maybe it was having a #1 recruiting class and not doing a thing with it or a class after. Guys were flying around tho.

Golden will get and deserves a 5th yr and you decide his future after. Its that simple. The hate our coaching staff receives is hilarious. They went from losing every game after Nebraska in a lot of people eyes on this board to dominating opponents and still getting no credit. Was FSU lost a squandered opportunity yes but it wasn't on coaching. The loss sucks but step back and actually take a unbiased look.

Also if golden is fired you can kiss them 15' & 16' classes bye bye

Hire Butch Davis, and we'll have '15 and '16 classes like you couldn't dream of - much less Golden.

 

[Jassid82]

Our offensive skill positions are a mess next year unless Coley takes a giant leap forward and Rashawn Scott is healthy and back to form. Everybody else is decent at best. RB is trouble.

Disagree big time. Kaaya will have a year under his belt and another summer to get accustomed to guys like Waters, Scott, Berrios, Coley, etc. Once they get that timing down. I think we wil be fine.

I fully expect for Stacey Coley to come back with a vengeance next year and be our #1 WR. For some reason, I am just not worried about him. I am preparing myself for the press release once the season is over that says either he was battling a nagging injury that needed surgery but never complained and just wanted to play through it or that he was dealing with a family issue off the field. Something aint right with him this year.

RB is the last thing I am worried about too. It will hurt not having Duke but a combination of Scarlett, Yearby, Edwards, Walton, and DWilliams will be more then fine. RB is the easiest position to make an impact your T-FR year. I fully expect Yearby and Scarlett to hold things down next year.

 

[CANE4LIFE]

The ONLY thing that realistically matters now is where do we go from here. Kaaya looks like a freaking SUPERSTAR in the making. Regardless of how young and unproven our offensive talent is going to be, a QB like that makes the offense look better than it is.

I think the BIGGEST question mark is the defense. Has it finally turned the corner? Has Golden finally said "f*ck this" to their mentality and approach with Dorito, and is he committed to doing things differently now. If he is, and they can maintain the momentum to finish this season, I think next year may be a turning point. If not, then yes, its going to be another year or "missed opportunity" and it will almost certainly be the last one for Golden here.

There were some real missed opportunities this year. I gave them somewhat of a pass for UL. First game, on the road for a True Frosh, Coley coached scared, and they were way too conservative.

Nebraska and GT were inexcusable defensive disasters. But something has changed on defense. It took 3 and a half years, and a lot of "missed opportunities" but we have finally started to see what we wanted to see for years now. This guy finally adjusting on defense.

That's what everything now hinges on IMO. Is this the real thing as far as a change in defense, and new blood and approach, or is he going to revert back to the same **** that led to all those missed opportunities.

I think he's almost certainly bought himself another year, but he's out of good will from pretty much everyone. For me this was the year he needed to put up for shut up. He's come up short. But Im a realist, and I don't think he's going anywhere until after next year at the earliest. For many he lost them a long time ago. And I think with the school admin, BOT and media, he's running very low. Next year is do or die time for him with the people that matter.

One way or the other, Golden's era of "missed opportunities" are coming to an end. Either he is going to start cashing in those opportunities next season, or he will be gone. Shalala stepping down when she did/announced, probably took the heat off internally til next year. But he's REALLY out of time.

This is really the defining crossroads of Golden's career here. All bullsh*t aside. Objectively speaking. If he can sustain this momentum as he finishes this season, and finally get it together next season, he may have something going. If he crashes and burns again, I really think that's it.

 

[CANE4LIFE]

Our offensive skill positions are a mess next year unless Coley takes a giant leap forward and Rashawn Scott is healthy and back to form. Everybody else is decent at best. RB is trouble.

Disagree big time. Kaaya will have a year under his belt and another summer to get accustomed to guys like Waters, Scott, Berrios, Coley, etc. Once they get that timing down. I think we wil be fine.

I fully expect for Stacey Coley to come back with a vengeance next year and be our #1 WR. For some reason, I am just not worried about him. I am preparing myself for the press release once the season is over that says either he was battling a nagging injury that needed surgery but never complained and just wanted to play through it or that he was dealing with a family issue off the field. Something aint right with him this year.

RB is the last thing I am worried about too. It will hurt not having Duke but a combination of Scarlett, Yearby, Edwards, Walton, and DWilliams will be more then fine. RB is the easiest position to make an impact your T-FR year. I fully expect Yearby and Scarlett to hold things down next year.

I agree with this 100%. A great QB can make an average offense look like a juggernaut. RB is the only real concern IMO. Someone is going to step up to be Kaaya's "go to" guy and emerge as a "playmaker". I expect Berrios and Coley to be showcased a lot next year. Berrios has gotten a lot of sh*t, and some of it is fair, but he's still only a true Frosh. The kid is quick as ****, and finds ways to get open. When he gets it all together, he's going to be a good weapon for Kaaya.

 

[westcoastcanes]

When is this site going to do a front page story calling for Golden to be fired?

Never so just drop it

When is this site going to do a front page story calling for Golden to be fired?

As soon as you want all the media access you all pay so much for to get revoked. That's when.

Not exactly ESPN/Miami Herald level clout being wielded around here. Baby steps.

When was the last time this site interviewed a current player or corch?

The second you quit your paying job and start doing it.

When's the last time most on here gave a crap what a coach said in an interview anyway. A head coaches job is 1/3rd coach, 1/3rd car salesman and 1/3rd PR guy anyway.

The value of this site is the inside stuff with people sharing what they find out. Is half of it BS? I'm sure. The rest of it is usually still more info than you'll get with a $9.99 Scout subscription that's for sure.

lol, the inside information we get on this site is from people who paid for a sub to a premium site and post the articles here.

 

[LuCane]

We're going to be stuck in perpetual "missed opportunity land" unless certain things permanently change. Players will always make mistakes. You will always be able to point to a fumble, missed tackle or bad read. Players just need to be placed in as many opportunities as possible to succeed. Ultimately, that's a coach's entire job - from in-game to off the field. The FSU game wasn't actually an egregious example of poor maximization of talent, but GT and Nebraska were. If we had **** the bed, as we did, against Louisville, won the rest of our games and then choked, as we did, against FSU, I'd have more hope. We'd also be competing for the ACC Coastal.

The bottom line with this team is that it will go down as a extremely talented team (wait till a couple years to see how many NFL players we were playing who *already* had college experience) that was operating on a razor thin margin of error.

Experienced college players on the 2014 squad who will likely play in the NFL:

Duke Johnson
Stacy Coley
Phillip Dorsett
Clive Walford
Ereck Flowers
Jon Feliciano
Herb Waters

Tyriq Mccord
(Anthony Chickillo?)
Denzel Perryman
(Jermaine Grace is a Soph., but may classify as inexperienced)
Artie Burns
Ladarius Gunter
Tracy Howard
Deon Bush
(Antonio Crawford, maybe)
(Corn Elder may not classify because of inexperience)

I'm probably missing some. That's a ****load of talent. I give Golden credit for collecting it. I'm disappointed we're, at best, an 8-4 team. We didn't even suffer significant, team-crippling injuries for extended periods of time, so that can't be an excuse.

On the point of sufficient talent and where we are going forward, I think that somewhat surprisingly, it's the talent that we're losing on offense and the guys that are supposed to fill that void that, at least in the short term, will be the biggest issue and may prevent us from "trending" in the right direction. There are obviously guys that will step up, just like a guy like Dorsett stepped up after losing Hurns, but I think that next year our offense has a ton of question marks.

I think the people that are saying that Yearby, Gus, Gray? and the freshmen RBs that are coming in will definitely replace Duke are significantly undervaluing Duke. He may not be quite as talented as Edge or McGahee, but as solid as Yearby has been, there is absolutely a big dropoff. Dorsett has the ability to take the top off a defense unlike anyone else, including Coley, and he also was a very tough player and reliable blocker on the outside. Waters disappeared as the season went on, Lewis isn't nearly as quick as he was, and Berrios is a good slot guy but didn't flash game changing skills. Rashawn Scott has been hurt or suspended seemingly his whole career and who knows what we have in Langham or Brady.

Walford has developed into a beast, and what makes us think that Dobard is definitely going to be able to replace him? We're likely losing the starting left side of our OL and our starting C. McDermott may be a JAG, but who is going to replace him? Gall has been hurt and is unproven. We return S. McDermott, Gadbois, Darling, Linder and Isidora (a very solid OL), but what depth do we have? Are we going to have to rely again on true freshmen on our OL to provide depth in year 5?

I think that with the guys we had this year that are graduating or will leave early, there was simply no reason to be an 8-4 team. The whole "young team" narrative was really inaccurate, because other than our QB and the right side of our OL, we were a team with experienced guys starting at almost every position. In college football, you're obviously going to lose some players every year, but this is a year where we're losing some pretty significant players without knowing who will be replacing them next year. As good as Kaaya is, I guess I just don't see us as a team that is ready to make that next step, at least not with this coaching staff and the mentality/strategy they bring.

Nice post.

I don't see it either, but for different reasons:

1. The drop off from Duke to the next guys won't be felt as bad because we rarely used Duke properly. It has nothing to do with Duke's obvious talent(s), but we basically began to use him as a considerable weapon about 3 games ago. Even in a game like FSU, while we lose a Duke-level talent, we gain experience in Kaaya and that closes the gap.

2. The drop off from Walford to Dobard should be minimal. Walford was an absolute beast and partly because he benefitted from Kaaya's ability to throw between defenders, his willingness to throw him open and, well, his height. Walford's big jump is partly due to his hard work and partly to do with having a QB willing to get him the ball. Dobard's skill set is not that different and may be, at least projected, slightly better than Walford's in the passing game. If Dobard can really hit the weight room and focus, I actually expect him to make a significant jump and become an All-ACC type player next year.

3. We most likely lose Ereck Flowers and that should hurt. It hurts less because Gadbois or Mcdermott will jump in there. Feliciano is probably the biggest downgrade for next year because he was (1) versatile, (2) good and (3) reliable. That is very difficult to replace even if talented kids are on the way up. On the other hand, we go into next season with, likely, 3 legitimate Tackles with game experience and none with huge holes in their games. That hasn't happened around here in a while.

On the inside, Nick Linder's rise changes everything. If he ends up at C, he might be an upgrade over SMcderm. If he plays LG, we now have two Guards we can count on and who have previous experience. The last time we went into a season in that situation was with Feliciano/Linder and they anchored us. We still need another interior OL. Bottom line.

4. On paper, the loss of Dorsett looks like it kills us. Coley hasn't performed this year and Waters has disappeared. Other than the disappearing Coley, we don't have a burner. Thing is… I think it all changes next year when Kaaya learns to work the pocket. The biggest jump you will see is that he won't be throwing the ball a tick after his last drop back step hits. Currently, virtually every pass he attempts is in rhythm and it limits his reads. He's a true Frosh seeing things for the first time. We're lucky he can even execute that as well he does. He's going to get A LOT better. The field completely changes when a QB begins to step into the pocket, slide across it, and reach 2nd and 3rd reads.

Coley will be in his 3rd year and intending to get out of here. If we're going to see a focused Stacy Coley, it's going to be next season. He is more naturally gifted in and out of his breaks than Dorsett and should be used over the top on a consistent basis - even if as a decoy. When that field opens up, it should be time for Waters and Berrios to do damage. At the same time, I expect Coach Coley to make a leap in his anticipation and route combinations.

I am not worried about next year's offense except for a "big play" RB. Perhaps one of the True Frosh will come in early and get right to it.

 

[WhatTheHell]

I can't believe this dude just typed that

Let ME know where I'm wrong. I'm down to be wrong and completely off base.

In the 3 years leading up to Jimbo winning a National Championship, he won:

10 games
9 games
12 games
2 ACC titles
3-0 bowl games
Finished every season ranked in the top 25


Golden has won.......?
0 ACC titles.
Coastal Titles? Nope. Can't win his division.
Finish the year ranked? Fail.
Double digit games in a season? Ha.


Not to mention, this whole "learn how to win games" shlt is funny, how are you supposed to learn how to win games you keep losing? That's like saying I wanna learn how to cook, so I go into my kitchen once a week and throw eggs at the wall while I shlt my pants.


Lastly, it's not about the players learning how to win these games, college football rosters flip quicker than a flapjack at sunrise (wut). The head coach needs to know how to win big games.

The most talented players on this team are gone next season. GOLDEN needs to know how to win these games, and he needs to pass that on to the next crop of kids every season. This isn't the NFL where the team will have the same players for 6 or 7 years. It falls on the head guy.

And guess what? For the second season in a row, Golden has lost to the 4 best teams he's played. That's 0-8 over the last 2 season against the best competition, so as much as I hate the man, don't disrespect Jimbo by comparing him to this fking hack.

 

[AUcane]

Thankfully, RB is one of the few positions where a true freshman can easily step in and play D1A football (pass pro is the biggest challenge). I'm hopeful ONE of the guys can provide meaningful carries. I'm also hopeful Gus can continue his improvement as a reserve bruiser. Quiet as kept, I think him being out against FSU did something to our RB rotation.

I'm not too worried about TE because I really like Dobard and Herndon and (hopefully) Njoku can be adequate replacements.

Like Lu said, Linder's play this year has made a huge difference in the outlook for next year. KCM, TD have shown that they can be solid players next year and I'm sure the coaches will give Linder a shot at Center. That would be ideal.

Lastly, WR - biggest question mark. Scott can't stay healthy and Dorsett is a tremendous field stretcher. Coley can be that guy but he's been in another universe this year. Coaches only seem to use him as a decoy or a bubble screen guy. NEed to get him touches. Waters and Lewis are unreliable and frankly, not very good (Lewis is a couple steps slow). Hopefully Berrios can have a nice spring.

 

[OzarCaneSaw]

I can't believe this dude just typed that

Let ME know where I'm wrong. I'm down to be wrong and completely off base.

In the 3 years leading up to Jimbo winning a National Championship, he won:

10 games
9 games
12 games
2 ACC titles
3-0 bowl games
Finished every season ranked in the top 25


Golden has won.......?
0 ACC titles.
Coastal Titles? Nope. Can't win his division.
Finish the year ranked? Fail.
Double digit games in a season? Ha.


Not to mention, this whole "learn how to win games" shlt is funny, how are you supposed to learn how to win games you keep losing? That's like saying I wanna learn how to cook, so I go into my kitchen once a week and throw eggs at the wall while I shlt my pants.


Lastly, it's not about the players learning how to win these games, college football rosters flip quicker than a flapjack at sunrise (wut). The head coach needs to know how to win big games.

The most talented players on this team are gone next season. GOLDEN needs to know how to win these games, and he needs to pass that on to the next crop of kids every season. This isn't the NFL where the team will have the same players for 6 or 7 years. It falls on the head guy.

And guess what? For the second season in a row, Golden has lost to the 4 best teams he's played. That's 0-8 over the last 2 season against the best competition, so as much as I hate the man, don't disrespect Jimbo by comparing him to this fking hack.

and JC will now ignore WTH in 3...2...1...

 

[CANE4LIFE]

Why does everyone seem to ignore that Jimbo was effectively the shadow HC at FSU for THREE seasons before Bowden retired? And he lost SIXTEEN (16) games. He also lost 10 games his first 3 seasons as official HC.

Jimbo has certainly finally gotten it right at FSU, though we will see how he does without Winston, who has taken them where they are. But lets also not act like Jimbo just walked right in and magically transformed FSU into a powerhouse overnight.

 

[RaiseCane]

Thankfully, RB is one of the few positions where a true freshman can easily step in and play D1A football (pass pro is the biggest challenge). I'm hopeful ONE of the guys can provide meaningful carries. I'm also hopeful Gus can continue his improvement as a reserve bruiser. Quiet as kept, I think him being out against FSU did something to our RB rotation.

I'm not too worried about TE because I really like Dobard and Herndon and (hopefully) Njoku can be adequate replacements.

Like Lu said, Linder's play this year has made a huge difference in the outlook for next year. KCM, TD have shown that they can be solid players next year and I'm sure the coaches will give Linder a shot at Center. That would be ideal.

Lastly, WR - biggest question mark. Scott can't stay healthy and Dorsett is a tremendous field stretcher. Coley can be that guy but he's been in another universe this year. Coaches only seem to use him as a decoy or a bubble screen guy. NEed to get him touches. Waters and Lewis are unreliable and frankly, not very good (Lewis is a couple steps slow). Hopefully Berrios can have a nice spring.

Sure, I agree that RB is a position that a true freshman can have an immediate impact and I know that we have a few very highly rated guys coming in. I won't lie and pretend that I have watched film of those guys and know much about any of them, other than that they're highly rated, because I generally don't really get into recruiting that much until the season is over, so the question is are any of these guys going to be able to flash and produce like Duke did in his first year here? I liked what I saw from Yearby a lot, and I think he will likely end up being a very good player for us, but Duke is clearly a special talent who has improved every year here, so unless one of the freshmen is as talented and ready as Duke, Dalvin Cook, Alex Collin, etc., it's a lot to ask Yearby, Gus and one or more freshmen being able to fill in.

I agree that Kaaya's growth may make up for the drop off in running back, but I wonder what the net impact on our offense is going to be of losing our homerun threat at RB and our best homerun threat at WR. Coley was a special player last year and has struggled this year, but if he gets back to last year, that will certainly help. However, unless he gets a bit bigger and stronger, I worry about having a guy as slight as him, a guy who has gotten up slowly several times this year after taking hits, as our number 1 WR and the only guy that can take the top off a defense. Teams may be able to squat more on our short and intermediate routes, not because we have a freshman QB, like this year, but because they don't fear getting beat over the top. I think that teams we play will have to worry much less about the big play over the top and less about the big play on the ground.

Our OL very well may be the strength of the offense next year (other than Kaaya), and there is no doubt that you cannot help but be impressed by the play of our young guys. I feel good about McDermott, Gadbois, Darling, Linder and Isidora. However, the guys we lose do have a ton of starts between them, and I'd think that guys like Feliciano and McDermott provided leadership and cohesion on the line that we'll miss.

 

[WhatTheHell]

Why does everyone seem to ignore that Jimbo was effectively the shadow HC at FSU for THREE seasons before Bowden retired? And he lost SIXTEEN (16) games. He also lost 10 games his first 3 seasons as official HC.

Jimbo has certainly finally gotten it right at FSU, though we will see how he does without Winston, who has taken them where they are. But lets also not act like Jimbo just walked right in and magically transformed FSU into a powerhouse overnight.

Shadow? Cool, great experience. Golden was a HEAD coach for 5 seasons.

And I love pointing out his losses, let's ignore the 2 double digit win seasons, 3 bowl game wins, and 2 ACC titles. Good lord.

 

[losdogcane]

waste of a season & talent.


Dorsett, Duke, Flowers, Armbrister, Walford, Perryman, Mongo, Chick, Gunter, etc. all gone.

I'm concerned if we can fill these holes next year and there's nothing to show me that we will turn those missed opportunties into capitalized moments.

Just curios how did those guys get good? Most, according to this board were JAGS, out of high school.

 

[CANE4LIFE]

Why does everyone seem to ignore that Jimbo was effectively the shadow HC at FSU for THREE seasons before Bowden retired? And he lost SIXTEEN (16) games. He also lost 10 games his first 3 seasons as official HC.

Jimbo has certainly finally gotten it right at FSU, though we will see how he does without Winston, who has taken them where they are. But lets also not act like Jimbo just walked right in and magically transformed FSU into a powerhouse overnight.

Shadow? Cool, great experience. Golden was a HEAD coach for 5 seasons.

And I love pointing out his losses, let's ignore the 2 double digit win seasons, 3 bowl game wins, and 2 ACC titles. Good lord.

Yes, but you are really going to compare Temple to Florida State?? Jimbo was brought in to be the HC in waiting, and was the defacto HC at FSU while Bobby was drooling on himself and everyone was waiting for him to just retire because no one wanted to 'push out the legend".

Jimbo showed up in 2007, and in his first 3 seasons, FSU went on to have 2 of the WORST seasons in 40 years. Losing SIXTEEN games those 3 years. People were ready to HANG Jimbo at FSU, but Bobby took the blame, even though he wasn't even running his own diaper drawer by then.

And then Jimbo OFFICIALLY takes over, and in his first 3 years? TEN losses.

It wasn't until Winston showed up that Jimbo's fortunes really improved. So lets stop acting like Jimbo is some sort of Demigod that parted the Red Sea in Tallahassee and saved them from wandering the desert when he arrived. Jimbo was basically running that program for 6 years before he did **** up there. And his first 5 were a total disaster.

 

[AUcane]

Another thing about FSU...

Towards the end of the Bowden reign, they had serious lockeroom issues and folks were really piling on and claiming the end of FSU football for some time.

Yet, Jimbo managed to right the ship a bit and is now fielding epic teams.

 

[weownfsu]

Why does everyone seem to ignore that Jimbo was effectively the shadow HC at FSU for THREE seasons before Bowden retired? And he lost SIXTEEN (16) games. He also lost 10 games his first 3 seasons as official HC.

Jimbo has certainly finally gotten it right at FSU, though we will see how he does without Winston, who has taken them where they are. But lets also not act like Jimbo just walked right in and magically transformed FSU into a powerhouse overnight.

Shadow? Cool, great experience. Golden was a HEAD coach for 5 seasons.

And I love pointing out his losses, let's ignore the 2 double digit win seasons, 3 bowl game wins, and 2 ACC titles. Good lord.

Yes, but you are really going to compare Temple to Florida State?? Jimbo was brought in to be the HC in waiting, and was the defacto HC at FSU while Bobby was drooling on himself and everyone was waiting for him to just retire because no one wanted to 'push out the legend".

Jimbo showed up in 2007, and in his first 3 seasons, FSU went on to have 2 of the WORST seasons in 40 years. Losing SIXTEEN games those 3 years. People were ready to HANG Jimbo at FSU, but Bobby took the blame, even though he wasn't even running his own diaper drawer by then.

And then Jimbo OFFICIALLY takes over, and in his first 3 years? TEN losses.

It wasn't until Winston showed up that Jimbo's fortunes really improved. So lets stop acting like Jimbo is some sort of Demigod that parted the Red Sea in Tallahassee and saved them from wandering the desert when he arrived. Jimbo was basically running that program for 6 years before he did **** up there. And his first 5 were a total disaster.

FSU in Jimbo's first 3 years won 10+ games twice, won their division of the ACC twice, and won the ACC. Just stop. Basically every coach that has done great things at their school in the BCS era has won pretty big within 4 years, and that's the bottom line that isn't debatable.

 

[CANE4LIFE]

Why does everyone seem to ignore that Jimbo was effectively the shadow HC at FSU for THREE seasons before Bowden retired? And he lost SIXTEEN (16) games. He also lost 10 games his first 3 seasons as official HC.

Jimbo has certainly finally gotten it right at FSU, though we will see how he does without Winston, who has taken them where they are. But lets also not act like Jimbo just walked right in and magically transformed FSU into a powerhouse overnight.

Shadow? Cool, great experience. Golden was a HEAD coach for 5 seasons.

And I love pointing out his losses, let's ignore the 2 double digit win seasons, 3 bowl game wins, and 2 ACC titles. Good lord.

Yes, but you are really going to compare Temple to Florida State?? Jimbo was brought in to be the HC in waiting, and was the defacto HC at FSU while Bobby was drooling on himself and everyone was waiting for him to just retire because no one wanted to 'push out the legend".

Jimbo showed up in 2007, and in his first 3 seasons, FSU went on to have 2 of the WORST seasons in 40 years. Losing SIXTEEN games those 3 years. People were ready to HANG Jimbo at FSU, but Bobby took the blame, even though he wasn't even running his own diaper drawer by then.

And then Jimbo OFFICIALLY takes over, and in his first 3 years? TEN losses.

It wasn't until Winston showed up that Jimbo's fortunes really improved. So lets stop acting like Jimbo is some sort of Demigod that parted the Red Sea in Tallahassee and saved them from wandering the desert when he arrived. Jimbo was basically running that program for 6 years before he did **** up there. And his first 5 were a total disaster.

FSU in Jimbo's first 3 years won 10+ games twice, won their division of the ACC twice, and won the ACC. Just stop. Basically every coach that has done great things at their school in the BCS era has won pretty big within 4 years, and that's the bottom line that isn't debatable.

Jimbo got to FSU in 2007. They went 7-6. Bobby was nothing but a figure head that they let stay on so he could try to get that "winningest coach" B.S. over Paterno. Absolutely NO ONE believed Bobby was running anything at the end. Jimbo was basically the defacto coach, and was brought in specifically as the HC in waiting to officially take over when Bobby was finally nudged out/retired because no one wanted to embarrass the "legend" who was a senile drooling fool at that point.

Jimbo had a THREE year head start in recruiting who he wanted, and putting in his systems before he had to take any responsibility for the losses and mistakes made in the program. FSU lost SIXTEEN games the first three years Jimbo was at FSU with him as the defacto HC. And in the three years AFTER he took over officially, they lost another TEN games. 26 losses with Jimbo officially, or unofficially running the program at FSU in the first 6 years. And it wasn't until year 6 that he had a solid season and the fans stopped *****ing.

 

[pb5cane]

I can't believe this dude just typed that

Let ME know where I'm wrong. I'm down to be wrong and completely off base.

You're talking about maturation process when our roster is littered with upperclassmen and massive amounts of experience.

Besides QB, who would you say has a lot of maturing to do? Mind you Kayaa is extremely mature and poised for a true freshman QB.

Our RB is an all-american junior RB who's been getting major minutes since he was a freshman.

Same goes for our LT who will be drafted in the first two rounds next year. Feliciano and McDermott have massive amounts of experience. Yes, Linder, Isadora and Darling are young, but they held their own.

Senior, possibly all-american TE.

Senior, deep threat WR in Dorsett. Waters, a junior. Lewis, a 3rd year player, who's 100% after is bad injury two years ago.

On defense, Pierre and Chick are both seniors with massive amounts of PT. Heurt is a JuCo transfer who's played well for us all year.

DP and Thurston are seniors. McCord is a junior. Kirby is a junior who's finally put it together. Grace is a sophomore with great instincts.

Gunter, a senior. Howard a junior who's played since he stepped on campus. Crawford is a junior. Burns, a high-school all-american sophomore.

Bush, has played since he stepped on campus. Crawford, is a 3rd year player (?) back at DB after a year at RB. And our coaches are set on playing Fentress, and I feel like he's been at Miami forever.

So again, where do you see us maturing?

It's not about the year next to their name. It's about playing in big games against good competition and learning what needs to be done in close games to win them. I'm not saying that this is 1999, but a junior Santana Moss, a junior Dan Morgan, a Junior Damione Lewis, and a junior Reggie Wayne lost close games as well to good competition.

If even they had to go through this stage, where it seemed that the talent was there, but the results didn't add up, what makes you think that a team that is nowhere NEAR as talented as that team was, can simply skip over this stage in their development?

It's not about them being great players individually. They've done the work required to improve themselves and become technically sound football players, it's about learning how to apply that to WINNING. Everything that is available to read from any successful coach is that winning is just as much a skill as shooting a basketball or cut blocking or hitting a baseball. It's a learned exercise.

I think that's why there was an outpouring of love and understanding from the Cane Alumni after the game. There are a lot of guys who have been at that point where it isn't adding up and even though they themselves are great players, they were still losing games. Mel Bratton, Zo, Jerome, and the rest of those boys lost 5 times in '84 and most of them in wretched fashion whether it be a Hail Mary or blowing a massive lead.

Standish Dobard is a talented kid who is probably going to go on to be a whale of a player here, but as of right now, he's young. Standish has probably been told time and again by coaches on the staff about protecting the football and the importance of securing and on numerous occasions, he has probably thought to himself, "I got it, I wish they would stop talking about that dumb ****" or just out and out ignore it. He wet the bed on National Television for the whole wide world to see. Most lessons are all lessons learned through experience. I'm sure he understands now. That pain the he felt in the locker room after the game, will push him to be better, to be more fundamentally sound, to be more accountable to his teammates...TO "REFUSE TO LOSE." Same goes for Braxton Berrios, Sunny Odogwu, Michael Wyche and HOPEFULLY Al Golden, James Coley, and Mark D'Onofrio.

There is no consoling in the praise of moral victories, but to not acknowledge where these guys have come from is ignorant. Do you guys remember K. State? Notre Dame? Where they were just some little punk kids gettin mushed about the field? They're a long way from that and the hope is that they finally put it all together.

Maturity? Ironic that FSU's true freshmen won this game for them and kept their title hopes alive.

 

[Disgustipated]

Everyone like to win. It's good. Feels good.

But what separates Golden from Saban, or JJ, or any number of other Head Coaches, past and present is - Golden doesn't hate to lose.

Think about Saban. He hates to lose. In fact, anything short of a perfect game to Saban is Hateful. His dissatisfaction after every game is something to see. Ol' Ball Coach hates losing worse than anything. These are MEN.

Golden doesn't enjoy losing, but Golden doesn't hate it. And if you have any doubts, consider the interviews by players over the past damned-near-four years. Not one of them is ****ed. Not one of them has said they hated losing by either words or attitude. Snickers was a prime example of a Golden-give-a-**** indoctrination.

A man cannot have two fears of equal strength. He'll fear losing, or his hatred of losing - only one can dominate.

Golden fears losing - thus the prevent style lockup in his bowels in games with any difficulty whatsoever.

Golden's FEAR of LOSING, is stronger than his HATRED of LOSING.

And that's in him. His DNA. His core personality.

And that will NOT change. That's why he'll never win a championship. Golden couldn't win a championship with the '72 Dolphins.

You stole basically this entire post from another poster from another board. Almost recited word for word.