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Better luck next time, Weatherford

By GARY SHELTON
Published September 6, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Against Duke, the kid might have been okay.

Against Wake Forest, he might have been fine.

Against Cincinnati or Rutgers, the schools where quarterback careers are intended to begin, Drew Weatherford might have introduced himself to college football in a manner worth cheering. A few passes, a few poses, those sorts of things.

Instead, Weatherford got ... this.

Instead, FSU got ... that.

Instead, a player and a program have a long, long way to go.

It was the ugliest, most painful debut you could imagine. It was wild, it was wobbly, and it came with three questions for every answer.

It was, on the other hand, successful. FSU stunk slightly less than Miami, 10-7. Bobby Bowden will manage to live with the smell.

As for Weatherford, he took his lumps. How could anyone reasonably expect anything else? How could Bowden, who turned to a redshirt freshman from Land O'Lakes to make lemonade out of Lyme disease?

Weatherford is 20 years old, and for most of the night, he looked younger. He looked scattered and anxious, and what else would you expect? If there is potential there, Weatherford kept it hidden throughout the night.

In a program that does not grade on the curve, why put it any other way? Weatherford was terrible. He hit only seven of 24 passes for 67 yards, and most of his completions were as close as a thirsty man and a Coke machine. Had Miami not dropped an interception late, the result might have been different.

Yes, FSU managed to win. For the present tense, that's plenty. This was Miami, for heaven's sake. Around here, no one is going to reject a victory because it is too homely.

This was too much to ask, of course, and it was much too soon to ask it. Nights such as this are why college football invented UAB and Baylor and the directional schools that pepper the early season schedules of most power programs. Teams schedule layups, glorified preseason games, just so young quarterbacks can play tagalong football, where all they have to do is hand off a few times and throw to fast receivers who are covered by slow cornerbacks. That way, a quarterback can get ripe by the time he is required to stand upright.

Weatherford? He draws Miami, and he draws it only weeks after the starting job fell into his lap. He gets a bit of credit for not spontaneously combusting.

How does a team win with a quarterback this wobbly? It helps when the opponent has wobbles of its own.

This was the green vs. the raw, the novice vs. the neophyte. There were times both quarterbacks needed training wheels.

By comparison to Weatherford, Miami's Kyle Wright looked much better. And at times, worse. Starting your first game against FSU on the road is no can of Play-Doh, either. Wright showed a livelier arm, and the 'Canes kept him more involved in the game. But it was Wright's early turnovers, and his taking of sacks late, that helped separate the teams.

Still, Wright will be okay. Will Weatherford?

Still, Miami will be pretty good. Will FSU?

At this point, it's hard to say. For years, Bowden has warned his fans not to fall in love with young quarterbacks because of the demands of the position. This was why.

The thing is, the Seminoles have no choice but to rush Weatherford, to demand the unrealistic and the unfair. What other chance do they have?

For FSU, and for Miami, it is high time a quarterback became something special again. It's odd, because when you think of these two programs, it is easy to think of the overloaded scoreboards. The truth is, it has been some time since either school had any more than a caretaker at quarterback. Neither stadium is kept green from the drool of professional scouts anymore.

For Bowden, that has to be a particular frustration. Over the years, the Seminoles have signed a great many highly regarded quarterbacks - Dan Kendra, Jared Jones, Adrian McPherson, Anquan Boldin, Chris Rix. None of them seem to work out, and none of them seem to get better.

Make no mistake, then. When you question the FSU quarterbacks, you are also questioning the coaching staff. It has been a long time since FSU was even pretty good at the position. Ask yourself: Should a program miss Thad Busby this badly?

Toss this one at the coaches, then. It is up to them to make their young quarterbacks, Weatherford or Xavier Lee, better. Those coaches could not with Rix, which is why some people view Bowden's faith in his son Jeff in the same manner as they would have viewed Vito Corleone turning the family business over to Fredo.

There were times against Miami when FSU's coaches seemed to ask too much of Weatherford. Other times, they seemed to ask too little. After all, even a beginner has to make plays here and there to help his team along the way. FSU's coaches, unlike Miami's, seemed determined not to ask.

On third down, for instance, FSU barely let Weatherford into the huddle. Third and 6, third and 4, third and goal, it didn't matter. Weatherford was going to hand off. Considering how erratic he was on other downs, it's hard to blame the coaches.

In the days to come, however, Weatherford will have to do more. Also, FSU will have to ask more.

Victory or not, the kid and his coaches have a long way to go.

[Last modified September 6, 2005, 06:16:45]